Obama-Compliant Military Threatens the Nation.  A plea-bargain deal for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and two alleged accomplices is back on the table after Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin canceled it in early August, doubtless fearing the possible effect on the presidential campaign.  The 9/11 attack killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.  The plea deal, which takes the death penalty off the table, could be due to Obama's lingering clout.  It also recalls an episode from his time as commander-in-chief.  In 2014, the president traded deserter Bowe Bergdahl for Abdul Haq Wasiq, Norullah Noori, Mohammad Fazi, Khairullah Khairkhwa, and Mohammad Nabi Omari.  The so-called "Gitmo Five" were all experienced jihadists and key players in Taliban military and intelligence operations.  It was as though Obama had traded Private Eddie Slovik for the Nazi high command.  The president also had no problem with open jihadists serving in the U.S. military.  "Soldier of Allah" Maj. Nidal Hasan was communicating with al Qaeda terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki about killing Americans.  The FBI knew it but looked the other way.

Obama's Weaponization of the DOJ.  [Scroll down]  Obama has much to atone for.  And much to be worried about.  Obama initiated the Russia-Collusion narrative against President Trump and used it in an attempt to overthrow a duly-elected President of the United States.  Obama was involved in the coverup of Biden's actions in Ukraine.  Although his actions had more to do with preventing people from understanding what he knew about Biden's actions in Ukraine, and when he knew it.  Obama also had a vested interest in concealing the CIA's involvement in Ukraine (including the 2014 Maiden Revolution) that exceeded his concerns about concealing Biden's corruption.  Everything Obama did, every step he took, was done with an eye to creating domestic division and strife.  And he was all-too successful in his many endeavors.  Obama's approach to Iran haunts us to this day, as do the actions of his State Department which unleashed the onslaught of immigration into the West through instability he created in the Middle East.  The actions taken by the Obama administration during Project Cassandra are an entire story unto themselves.

The Overrated Obama.  Obama is the guy who once said, in 2008, "And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."  And who said, that same year, that he was going to "spread the wealth around" of people to "Joe the Plumber."  And who said, in 2012, "If you've got a business, you didn't build that.  Somebody else made that happen."  Let me stand even further athwart the conventional wisdom regarding President Obama.  His recent statement is just another example that demonstrates that Barack Obama is, and always was, a very overrated politician.

Barack Obama:  The Man Behind the Democrats' Biden Dilemma.  [Scroll down]  From 2008 to 2016, something extraordinary happened.  Little by little, Obama's presidency took its toll on his party.  He routinely made everything about himself and his own ambitions rather than doing things for the good of the party.  He never worked with his party to grow their majorities, and in fact alienated a lot of Americans with his policies.  It was so bad that, by the time the 2016 election came around, the party was all but wiped out. [...] Obama's policies decimated Rust Belt jobs in particular.  The blue collar middle class had had it with him and his team.  After two devastating midterm cycles and barely squeaking by in his own re-election, Obama left office as the head of a party that had suffered more losses than at any point in history.  And, it was when he was about to leave office that he decided to look at potential successors and decide that Hillary Clinton was the best pick.  He convinced Biden to stand down and endorsed Clinton.  After all, imagine how great his legacy would look if he hand-picked the first female president!  Voters, angry at Obama's arrogance and his policies, voted for the most unlikely of presidential candidates, Donald J. Trump.

Obama never kept his word on warrantless wiretaps.  Literally less than 72 hours after being sworn in in January 2009, Barack Obama was in federal court arguing he had the right to spy on us.  Did you know that?  Perhaps you did and you forgot.  Seemed a worthwhile thing to bring up in light of all we've learned these last several years. [...] As Sundance at The Conservative Treehouse has rightly observed on many occasions, the George W. Bush presidency formalized the spying-on-us-all architecture post 9/11 with the Patriot Act, but it was the Barack H. Obama presidency which injected and animated the progressive virus to weaponize it against the regime's enemies ... and the viral particles, like viral particles do, have mutated and multiplied.  They say "personnel is policy"?  Well, Obama planted thousands of his ideological allies throughout every agency then made them nearly impossible to fire, and the Biden regime is, even as we speak, installing mechanisms to make them even more impervious to dismissal should, God forbid (to them!), Trump win this November's election.  If there's anything we've learned from these people, it's that they never sleep.

U.S. Intelligence Deserves the Distrust It Is Generating.  President Obama sought to change the demographics and the political complexion of the federal work force, and intelligence leaders such as CIA director John Brennan (2013-2017) made clear that they intended to change the organizational cultures of agencies in politically significant ways.  They succeeded brilliantly, with overt activism in defense of Obama/Brennan changes beginning in 2016, when Trump emerged as a potential threat to the "progress" that Obama's policies allegedly had achieved.  This radical change became glaringly obvious when former CIA deputy director Michael Morell invoked his CIA credentials in a New York Times op-ed to rationalize endorsing Hillary Clinton for president while harshly criticizing Trump.  Morell then became one of the "talking heads," along with Brennan, former director of national intelligence James Clapper, former CIA director Michael Hayden, and several dozen less-senior people whom the mainstream liberal press promoted as legitimate observers of everything relevant to their anti-Trump campaign.

Democrats believe in miraculous money.  The Golden Gate Bridge, the Hoover Dam, and the Empire State Building were each built in about three years, start to finish, during the depths of the Great Depression.  Nowadays, government projects take seemingly forever and usually cost multiples of their original cost estimates.  Remember Obama's "shovel-ready jobs," which he later confessed did not exist?  That was a classic Democrat fabrication designed to hoodwink taxpayers into supporting his 900-billion-dollar stimulus bill in 2009.  Yes, it was a con job, but who cares?  Certainly not Democrats.  Simply spending the money is all that matters to them.

Following Biden's Lead?  The Biden-Blinken strategic portfolio includes the less-than-exemplary American withdrawal from Afghanistan and the not-exactly-wonderfully executed war in Ukraine.  Since the Biden Administration is really staffed by many from Barack Obama's Administration, we need take a quick peek at the strategic record of Barack Obama and his team.  Obama got a Nobel Peace Prize scarcely weeks after taking office, and then sped the world to war and chaos.  Obama rushed to remake the Middle East by sowing destruction and mayhem in Egypt, Libya, and Syria.  Obama's satisfied customers included the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the Assad Regime in Syria, the ayatollahs in Iran, and a power-hungry dictator in Turkey.  Very satisfied customers included Vladimir Putin who got a military base in Syria thanks to the Obama-aided anarchy that ripped the country to shreds and sent waves of Muslim refugees to Europe.  No red lines there.  There were also a few happy gangs in Libya that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other American officials.  However, the Obama-Biden-Clinton policies left many unsatisfied customers — hundreds of thousands who were killed or displaced thanks to the brilliant initiatives of Mr. Obama, the Peace Prize laureate.

The Hysterical Style in American Politics.  The 2008 economic emergency crested on September 7, with the near collapse of the home mortgage industry.  Obama took office on January 20, 2009, more than four months after the meltdown.  In that interim, the officials had finally restored financial confidence and plotted a course of economic recovery.  No matter.  The Obama administration never stopped hyping the financial meltdown as if it had just occurred.  That way, it rammed through Obamacare, massive deficit spending, and the vast expansion of the federal government.  All that stymied economic growth and recovery for years.

Obama Created The Intelligence Agencies' Leftist Agendas.  During his first presidential campaign, Donald Trump faced more than Hillary Clinton.  A book by a former CIA officer who also worked in other intelligence agencies reported that "leftist political policies implemented under former President Barack Obama" waged political warfare against then-candidate Donald Trump in the run-up to the 2016 election.  The Washington Times covered the book, "Neutering the CIA: Why U.S. Intelligence Versus Trump Has Long-Term Consequences," published in July 2023. Former intelligence officer John Gentry reported how the leftist-trained intelligence agencies attempted to skew the election results toward Clinton and how that behavior was a danger to the future of the U.S.  Gentry's claim should not be surprising as reports about intelligence agencies trying to trip up the Trump campaign even through his administration.  Trump even claimed his campaign was being spied on by the Obama team.  Of course, the mainstream media made fun of Trump's claim and refused to investigate, but those who took the time to investigate the claim found Trump was being truthful.

Obama's clueless foreign policy left behind the chaos we face today.  The structures that bind the nations of the world together are breaking down before our eyes.  Two savage wars are raging in volatile regions, either of which might at any moment blow up to involve additional belligerents and the potential use of nuclear weapons.  The UN, established to prevent such disasters, has become a plaything of dictators:  Iran, one of the bloodiest regimes on earth and a proud sponsor of terrorism, has just assumed the chair of the UN's Human Rights Council.  China has greatly accelerated production of nuclear warheads — and the Chinese media has begun to issue threats about "war on a global scale."  The erratic Kim regime in North Korea has the bomb and the aforementioned Iranians, who have promised to annihilate Israel, are about to get theirs.  The Venezuelans are threatening to invade Guyana, which would disrupt the energy markets.

Obama-Era Fail:  Hamas Office In Qatar Backfires.  The Obama Administration appears to have made a big mistake by establishing a Hamas office in Qatar.  During former President Obama's time in office, the U.S. facilitated the opening of a Hamas office in Doha with the initial intention of assisting with indirect communication and contributing to de-escalation efforts in the Middle East.  However, the plan has backfired.  The Obama-era move may have unintentionally bolstered the terrorist group's activities and contributed to the ongoing violence in the region.  In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Qatar's Ambassador to Washington, Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani, wrote that his government set up the Hamas office in the region "after a request from Washington to establish indirect lines of communication" in 2012.  He claimed the office "frequently" served to mediate and help de-escalate conflicts between Israel and the Palestinian terrorists.

America's First Black President Left A Legacy Of Slavery.  Barack Obama was elected president some 143 years after the abolition of slavery in the United States.  As teary-eyed African-Americans watched Obama's 2008 election night speech in Chicago's Grant Park, none could have imagined that America's first black president would leave his own legacy of slavery — in Africa.  However, that's exactly what he did, thanks to a combination of imperial hubris, disregard for constitutional restraints on executive war powers, and the use of false pretenses.

Biden Is Even Worse than Obama.  Obama's signature "achievement," the Affordable Care Act, turned out to be a major failure, even on its own terms.  This law dragooned those actually paying for their health insurance into subsidizing poor, urban, and young people.  It ended up making healthcare more expensive, with the only beneficiaries being reliable Democratic Party constituencies.  Now more than 10 years into Obamacare, health costs have doubled, with middle-class people outside of the subsidy zone paying obscenely high premiums coupled with obscenely high out-of-pocket limits if they should get sick.  This illustrated a broader pattern.  Obamacare, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (signed by George W. Bush), and Obama's stimulus plan added to the national debt, but with very little to show for it.  In the past, big spending led to impressive achievements like the Hoover Dam or the Apollo program.  Obama left us with moronic monuments to his small-souled vision like the "cash for clunkers" boondoggle.

Why Curation of Twitter File Release #8 Was So Important.  The use of social media to install Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi was successful.  However, the Obama administration ran into a problem in the aftermath.  Immediately after taking office, Mohammed Morsi disbanded the courts, cancelled the Egyptian constitution and began implementing Sharia Law.  A terrified and awake Egyptian people immediately realized their leader was installed by western political scheme, fraud and deceptive use of social media by President Obama, Hillary Clinton and U.S. intelligence assets.  The Egyptians took to the streets.  After weeks of citizen protests and nationwide uprisings, the Egyptian military came into the picture on the side of the Egyptian people.  Well known commanding General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was respected by both the people and the military overall.  General al-Sisi agreed to support the demands of the people and the military removed Mohammed Morsi from office using the constitutional framework as a guide.  General al-Sisi then took charge and organized a national election after civil order was restored.  A reluctant General al-Sisi was elected to be president of Egypt by a vote of over 80% of the national population.  President al-Sisi then returned secularism to Egypt and provided security for the Christian minority.

Permissible and Impermissible Incendiary Speech?  Since the Obama era, there has been a serial effort to demonize the working class as somehow Neanderthal-like, clueless, and to be written off.  Obama's "clingers" slur transmogrified into Hillary's "deplorables" and "irredeemables," and on into Biden's "chumps" and "dregs."  And we forget sometimes that well before Donald Trump's chants of "Lock her up!" it was Barack Obama on the campaign trail who suggested to his supporters to confront their adversaries and "Get in their faces."  And Obama gave further advice about such confrontations, saying:  "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.  Because from what I understand, folks in Philly like a good brawl.  I've seen Eagles fans."  And lest we forget, Obama reminded his supporters "I don't want to quell anger.  I think people are right to be angry!"

Ukraine and the Malevolent Legacy of the Obama-Biden Administration.  [Scroll down] Remember the initial premise of Russian "Reset" — the idea and the term were first used by Vice President Joe Biden ("It's time to press the reset button") — was based on the myth that the "cowboy" George W. Bush had been too tough on Putin after the 2008 Russo-Georgian War.  To Biden and Obama, Bush had unduly sanctioned Vladimir Putin following his opportunistic absorption of South Ossetia in 2008 and attack on Georgia.  And thus, the Russian dictator would easily then be wowed by Obama's legendary charisma and charm from needless hostility to accommodation.  Accordingly, the reformist hope-and-change Obama Administration would rebuild a friendly relationship with Russia.  Thereby they would win strategic help from Russia with Obama's new ambitious agendas for Iran and Syria in remaking a more "equitable" Middle East.  Translated that meant "balancing" the region.  Thus, by weakening our former overdog allies in the Gulf and Israel while empowering our former underdog terrorist-sponsoring enemies in Tehran and Damascus, Obama sought to create strategic tension.  What followed was an utter disaster.

Another Justice Department Fail:  The Flynn Unmasking.  Barack Obama's crusade to destroy Lt. General Michael Flynn began months before Election Day in 2016.  Flynn resigned as Obama's Defense Intelligence Agency director in 2014 amid clashes with his boss at the time, James Clapper, over the administration's approach to the war on terror.  In early 2016, Flynn, who had become an outspoken critic of Obama's foreign policy, joined the Trump presidential campaign; a few months later, Obama's FBI opened a counterintelligence probe into Flynn and three other campaign associates.  After Trump won, Team Obama accelerated its targeting of Flynn.  Obama warned Trump during an Oval Office meeting shortly after Election Day not to hire Flynn, advice Trump promptly rejected.  So, Obama set out to make Trump pay for his defiance.

Hidden Document Shows Obama Met Dr. Tedros and Terrorist Leaders of Ethiopia in 2014 — Then In 2017 Tedros Elected Head of WHO.  A document that has now been deleted from the Internet shows Barack Obama meeting with Dr. Tedros of Ethiopia and terrorist leaders of that country.  A few years later Dr. Tedros was elected to lead the World Health Organization (WHO).  In March 2020 the China coronavirus was attacking and terrorizing the world.  It was at this time that we learned about the WHO Director General's past.  TGP reported that Dr. Tedros was fourth in line of leadership in Ethiopia.  We also learned that the leadership of Ethiopia was a terrorist regime.  This regime and China were closely connected as well.  China was happy to deal with the regime and in turn take advantage of the country's resources and people.

Obama, Biden, and the Threat to American Greatness.  Nearly all great nations come to an end, noted the famed historian, Arnold Toynbee.  America is no different.  Whether we care to acknowledge it or not, American greatness is threatened.  Our possible demise was accelerated by Barack Obama, a man who had neither the experience, intelligence, nor ideological commitment to America to lead it.  Obama did not comprehend the simple fact that great nations do not bluff.  The colossal red line fiasco in Syria spoke volumes to our adversaries.  When the green revolution emerged on the streets of Tehran, Obama did nothing.  When the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt showed that its conception of democracy was one person, one vote, one time, and was overthrown by a spontaneous outpouring of millions into the streets of Cairo, Obama's reaction was to attempt to bring back the Muslim Brotherhood.  With the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Iran agreement, Obama sought to let Iran develop a nuclear weapon at the expense of America's traditional allies, the Sunni Arabs and Israel.  The JCPOA was never about Iran not getting the bomb, but only about delaying it. [...] If there were a foreign policy decision to be made that would be injurious to both America's security and its standing in the world, Obama made it.  America had found its Manchurian Candidate.

Obama's Lawless Legacy Is The Cancer Consuming America Today.  You don't have to be any kind of intellectual savant to recognize this increasingly hyper-accelerated and precipitous decline our nation has been stricken with now for over a decade.  A deliberate decline, wholly manufactured and implemented with malevolent intentions among the usual suspects of political ruling class malefactors and their various radical militant acolytes.  A calculated decline whose subversive, accelerated machinations I believe to have been set in motion and implemented throughout the 8 years of Barack Hussein Obama's dumpster blazing presidency, setting the stage for these subsequent years of successive, surreal and intensifying social anarchy, civil unrest and unparalleled political corruption.  All done for the express purpose of seeking to subvert and decimate the pillars and foundation of our Republic.  To be sure, no one man could accomplish as much division and social upheaval as Obama managed to do without the help of accomplices and fellow conspirators.  How else can you explain an obscure community organizer whose own past was shrouded with vague content, going from an unaccomplished Illinois state senator with the sort of radical political associations that would see any of us put on an FBI terrorist watch list, to a U.S. senator to president of the United States in the span of a decade, void of having any substantive legislative achievements and possessing no executive experience?

Sanctions Don't Threaten Only the Enemy.  [Scroll down]  The great thinkers of the West decided that Putin couldn't possibly have the support of the Russian people on this.  So they added new sanctions to products that we would not normally regulate — peaceful products such as drilling machinery, pipeline components, and other energy-related goods.  They added new banned parties as well: forbid transactions involving certain major Russian or Russian-owned companies, particularly in the energy sector, especially if they had close ties with Putin or his deputies.  Surely, they thought, putting the screws to these businesses will cause them to pressure Putin to relent.  Eight years into this experiment, we can see that it was a mistake.

Obama told Trump 'I can't think of anything' when asked what his 'biggest mistake' was, book claims.  Then-President-elect Donald Trump is said to have asked outgoing President Barack Obama in 2017 what he thought his biggest mistake was as they traveled from the White House to the Capitol building, according to a new book. [...] "What was your biggest mistake?" asked the president-elect to his predecessor.  Obama is then said to have paused and looked back at Trump.  "I can't think of anything," he is reported to have responded.

4 prisoners Obama exchanged for Bowe Berghdahl [are] now in senior Taliban posts.  Four out of five Guantanamo detainees whom former President Barack Obama released in exchange for former U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in 2014 now hold senior positions in the interim government created by the Taliban in Afghanistan.  According to the Afghan television network TOLOnews, the Taliban-formed government gave leadership positions to Khairullah Khairkhwa, Norullah Noori, Abdul Haq Wasiq, and Mohammad Fazl; all of whom were released in a 2014 deal between the Obama administration and the Taliban to free Bergdahl, whom the Taliban had held as a prisoner since 2009.  On Tuesday, the Taliban announced that Khairkhwa would serve as acting minister for information and culture, Noori would serve as acting minister of borders and tribal affairs, Wasiq would serve as acting director of intelligence, and Fazl would serve as deputy defense minister.

As Biden Continues Obama's Plan to Close Gitmo, Hundreds of Former Detainees Have Returned to Terrorism and are Killing Americans Again.  Thanks to Biden-Obama, hundreds of the worlds most evil terrorists have been released from US custody and are now free to pursue their murderous revenge against the west.  According to US intelligence documents, A total of 229 "rehabbed" radical extremists have been released over the past few years and have returned to terrorism, some have already even been able to kill Americans.  What's even more ridiculous — as Biden discreetly works to release more detainees — US forces now have the responsibility of tracking all of them down, but an astonishing 66% of them have evaded recapture and are still on the run.

Did You Catch the Obama Dividend From the Taliban's Takeover?  It's All Over the News... Literally.  Both Obama and Biden are dithering fools who have jeopardized American national security; Biden wasn't even for the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.  Biden has outdone his boss regarding Afghanistan.  It's a mess.  It's an exit that is a total trainwreck.  No one can give straight answers concerning why this fell apart.  The intelligence community, the Pentagon, and the White House are all blaming each other.  With all of the typical DC games, there are at least 10,000 Americans still trapped in Afghanistan.  What's the plan?  I know we're now staying until they're all out — but what's the plan other than trusting the Taliban to ensure no one gets hurt as we evacuate our citizens.  It's a strategy that's bound to fall apart.  What happened here?  I mean, did we not know that thousands of our citizens were still in the bloody country?  Hamid Karzai Airport in Kabul is a nightmare.  The Taliban are back in control.  While Biden botched the exit, his former boss, Barack Obama, played a part, albeit in an indirect way, concerning the Taliban's reconquest of the country.  Remember the five Taliban commanders that were released in exchange for Bowe Bergdahl?  Yeah, he's one of the key players now.  He's the man who was photographed in the presidential palace in Kabul.  The man deemed too dangerous to release was then set free by Obama.

Obama Freed The Taliban Leader Who Engineered Kabul Takeover.  Former President Barack Obama didn't listen to Pentagon officials when they told him Taliban mullah Khairullah Khairkhwa was too dangerous to release.  Instead, he freed the group that came to be known as the 'Gitmo five' — Khairkhwa alongside four of his buddies — from the Guantanamo Bay prison in 2014 in exchange for a U.S. soldier who deserted his post.  Obama all but guaranteed that Khairkhwa and the four other men would be sent to Qatar, where their movements would be restricted and where they could do no harm.  As it turns out, the Taliban isn't as trustworthy as the former president thought.  Now, Khairkhwa has resurfaced as one of the masterminds behind the Taliban's takeover of Kabul, the New York Post reported Tuesday.

Taliban leader was freed from Guantanamo Bay in 2014 swap by Obama.  When President Barack Obama released five Taliban commanders from the Guantanamo Bay prison in exchange for an American deserter in 2014, he assured a wary public that the dangerous enemy combatants would be transferred to Qatar and kept from causing any trouble in Afghanistan.  In fact, they were left free to engineer Sunday's sacking of Kabul.  Soon after gaining their freedom, some of the notorious Taliban Five pledged to return to fight Americans in Afghanistan and made contacts with active Taliban militants there.  But the Obama-Biden administration turned a blind eye to the disturbing intelligence reports, and it wasn't long before the freed detainees used Qatar as a base to form a regime in exile.  Eventually, they were recognized by Western diplomats as official representatives of the Taliban during recent "peace" talks.

MSNBC host:  Obama's party was 'unbecoming,' a 'terrible message' amid coronavirus case surge.  MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski dinged former President Barack Obama's star-studded 60th birthday party as "unbecoming" and a "terrible message" for Democrats on Monday [8/9/2021].  Obama's Martha's Vineyard birthday party — which was slightly "scaled back" due to coronavirus concerns but still had hundreds of guests — was late-night fodder for the likes of HBO's Bill Maher, but Brzezinski said it "does seem a bit unbecoming or out of step" with the delta variant causing a coronavirus case surge.  New York Times reporter Annie Karni defended it as a party planned months ago in anticipation that COVID-19 cases would continue to dwindle, but she noted that apparently, "significantly scaled back" for Obama still meant a large crowd congregating and dancing at tents outside his ritzy estate.

Senate Investigation Finds Obama Admin Knowingly Funded al-Qaeda Affiliate.  Non-profit humanitarian agency World Vision United States improperly transacted with the Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA) in 2014 with approval from the Obama administration, sending government funds to an organization that had been sanctioned over its ties to terrorism, according to a new report.  Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) recently released a report detailing the findings of an investigation his staff began in February 2019 into the relationship between World Vision and ISRA.  The probe found that World Vision was not aware that ISRA had been sanctioned by the U.S. since 2004 after funneling roughly $5 million to Maktab al-Khidamat, the predecessor to Al-Qaeda controlled by Osama Bid Laden.  However, that ignorance was born from insufficient vetting practices, the report said.

Barack Obama gets his 'Birthday [expletive]' on.  Barack Obama, former president, just spent his 60th birthday with friends, family and fawning celebrity types at a bash on Martha's Vineyard.  Not unexpected.  And according to reports, he grooved to the song "Birthday B****" performed live by guest Trap Beckham.  A bit unexpected.  This is, after all, a former president, a former leader of the free world.  A former dignified member of the elitist of all elitist circles.  A father of two girls.

Malia got married?  This is news!  Oh, wait...
Obama reveals daughter Malia's boyfriend quarantined with the family in the early days of the pandemic.  The Obamas had a guest during the early days of the pandemic:  daughter Malia's boyfriend, Rory Farquharson.  Like most families across the United States, the Obamas quarantined as the coronavirus pandemic began to rage in mid-March.  In comments made on The Bill Simmons Podcast on Thursday [12/17/2020], Barack Obama noted that Farquharson was part of the family's early quarantining.

President Trump Pardons 4 American Heroes Persecuted by Biden.  While there has been an ongoing push to get President Trump to pardon traitors like Snowden, instead the first set of pardons includes the heroes and patriots of Raven 23, Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, Nicholas Slatten, and Paul Slough, who have been through a lot.  The four decorated military veterans had been protecting a State Department official when they came under attack in Baghdad.  They defended themselves and were hung out to dry.  While the attack happened under the Bush administration, the Obama administration decided to make an example of them.  And in of the lowest points of a very low man, Biden promised the Iranian puppets in Baghdad that the men would be lynched.  And the Obama administration delivered.

Trump's 44 uses of clemency powers seen as a bad thing by critics.  Obama granted clemency nearly 2,000 times.  When President Donald Trump announced that he would be issuing a pardon for retired Gen. Michael Flynn, a longtime Trump ally and former national security adviser for the Trump administration, the president's opponents ripped the move as an alleged abuse of the president's clemency powers.

The Supreme Court and the Electoral Coup.  [Scroll down]  And then there was Obama's achievements:  the Iran Nuclear Deal was consummated with the payment of $1.7 billion to the ruling mullahs in Iran, which the Senate wouldn't have ratified were it a treaty rather than a backchannel deal.  Obama's crowning achievement — er crime — that lead us to today's vote fraud dilemma was his oversight and approval of massive clandestine surveillance on Trump, his family and his entire campaign staff by way of an earlier fraud — the illicitly obtained FISA warrants to authorize surveillance — that were undertaken to facilitate an impeachment coup.

Which Flavor of Commie Is Joe Biden?  [Scroll down]  Biden has been wrong on every major foreign policy issue for nearly 50 years, siding with Communist policy objectives of the Soviet Union, China, and others at every turn.
  •   During the late 1960s and early '70s, when he first entered politics (!), he wanted to divide Vietnam into small pieces.
  •   During the Reagan era, he opposed the Reagan Doctrine, the Strategic Defense Initiative, deployment of the MX missile, deployment of nuclear Tomahawks to Europe to counter Soviet medium-range SS-20s, and support to the Nicaraguan contras (who opposed the Sandinistas who were the Soviets' proxies in Central America).  He also supported a "nuclear freeze" during the height of the Cold War (which would have locked in the Soviets' numerical advantage in land-based multi-warhead nuclear missiles).
  •   He opposed President Bush 41 on the Persian Gulf War, he opposed President Bush 43 on the surge that finally won the war in Iraq, and he even opposed Obama's decision to kill Osama Bin Laden. He voted for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002.  He claimed that Turkey would prove that Islam and democracy could peacefully co-exist.
  •   He claimed that Benghazi was the intelligence community's fault for not having forewarned the Obama regime that the attack was due to a protest over a previously unheard-of movie trailer (a complete lie, as we now know).  He helped Obama enable the rise of ISIS in Syria.  He denounced President Trump's decision to kill Qassem Suleimani, the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
  •   He supported Obama's deal with Iran (the JCPOA) which has since been exposed as a gift to the mullahs, but the Iranians received their "pallets of cash."  What do you suppose the world's foremost state sponsor of terrorism did with that money?

Joe Biden's Potemkin Presidency:  Will Socialist Soros And Other Extreme Leftists Call The Shots?  Joe Biden's big selling point to both the Democratic Party and the American people was that, in a crowd of candidates standing far left of center, he was the moderate choice.  Now, as he staffs a possible White House with far-left media re-treads and George Soros' socialist acolytes, we're seeing that his supposed moderation was just another of his endless lies.  No one should be surprised.  President Barack Obama played the moderate in his first campaign, then became the most far-left president in our history.  He, too, opened the White House doors to Soros-linked socialist apparatchiks.  Their inept policies led inevitably to economic stagnation and the worst foreign policy disasters in decades.

QAnon: The Media's Latest Obsession.  Alan Howell Parrot is an unusual character with a flowing gray beard and wizard's turban who looks like he popped out of a movie. [...] Parrot claims that both George W. Bush and Barack Obama were fully aware that bin Laden and more than 100 of his top Al Qaeda fighters were sheltering in Iran, along with their families.  And he's now released documents to support his claim, including an audio recording, that he has not denied, of Joe Biden's attorney admitting that Osama bin Laden was being kept in Iran as part of a deal with the U.S government. [...] According to Parrot, U.S. intelligence agencies first ignored, then obstructed, and finally threatened him, warning they would alert the Iranians if he attempted to capture bin Laden.  Eventually, Parrot says, Hillary Clinton arranged to move bin Laden to Pakistan for a "trophy kill" to ensure Obama's reelection.

The New York Times Discovers China.  [Scroll down]  Obama has just as much incentive to spread this kind of misinformation about the Trump account and to cover up the Biden family business as does "working class Joe." The Chinese weren't interested in what Joe or his brother or his son Hunter could do for them.  For the Chinese, they wanted nothing more than access to the Obama administration.  Moreover, when the former President first visited China in 2009, even the nauseatingly obsequious media reported that the new President had been led by the nose by the Chinese.  But perhaps Obama's nose just detected the smell of money?

Democrats' Policies are Unfit for the Presidency.  Even if your history knowledge only goes back four years, Obama's presidency:
  •   saw the feds take over of a third of the economy through Obamacare and corporate bailouts
  •   accelerated national financial collapse through unprecedented increases in taxpayer debts;
  •   further nationalized public education through an illegally imposed Common Core;
  •   misused federal power to surveil, harass, and subvert the opposing political party;
  •   appointed two far-left wack jobs of Supreme Court justices;
  •   sent guns to violent Mexican cartels that were used to murder Americans, then lied about it;
  •   effectively amnestyed 660,000 illegally present foreign citizens, forcing U.S. citizens to pay for benefits to them such as public education and health care;
  •   cut off perfectly legal companies from access to banking because of their politics;
  •   weaponized the Internal Revenue Service to harass grassroots political opponents and silence their speech;
  •   tried to force nuns to pay for abortifacients;
  •   forced public schools to put boys in little girls' locker rooms and bathrooms;
  •   fomented campus kangaroo courts that punished anyone accused of sexual assault without a remotely fair trial;
  •   attempted to force medical providers to treat men as women and vice versa;
  •   nationalized the student loan industry and inflated the student debt bubble;
  •   used the National Security Agency to mass surveil innocent Americans and collect private email, phone, and other records;
  •   bailed out with taxpayer cash a terrorist regime that brutalizes its people (Iran);
  •   endorsed race riots in Ferguson, Missouri; and
  •   executed 783 scandals.

Obama Could Have United Us with What He Knew About Hillary, Instead He Divided Us Further.  [Scroll down]  It's clear.  This was days before James Comey's FBI began its unprecedented counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign, apparently based on the Clinton campaign scheme Obama had been briefed on.  From that point forward, through the entire campaign, Obama knew that all the accusations and leaks and "Breaking Exclusive" reports about Russian collusion were nothing more than another dirty campaign trick from the dirtiest of politicians, Hillary Clinton.  Maybe it was the odious Sid Blumenthal who dreamed up the plot.  Obama knew what a problem this guy was; he blocked him from a job in the State Department under Hillary Clinton in his first term.  Maybe Blumenthal was the one who convinced Hillary to start the whole "birther" thing in the 2008 primaries and Obama hated him for it.

Trump Spares Stone from Imprisonment, Sparking Howls from Amnesiac Democrats.  Bill Clinton pardoned his own brother for felony distribution of cocaine. [...] Clinton also commuted the sentences of convicted terrorists, some of whom hadn't even asked for clemency.  Shameless as he was, though, even he couldn't bring himself to pardon Oscar Lopez Rivera, the defiantly unrepentant FALN leader.  President Obama took care of that.  Obama also commuted the sentence of a U.S. soldier who passed top-secret information to WikiLeaks.  He pardoned his former Joint Chiefs of Staff vice chairman, who'd been convicted of making false statements about a leak of classified information to the New York Times.  And when he couldn't get Congress to amend federal drug laws the way he wanted them amended, Obama used the pardon power to slash hundreds of sentences, under an executive initiative later sharply criticized by the Obama-appointed DOJ inspector general.

Trump Recovers Taxpayer Cash On A $1 Billion Obama-Backed Solar Plant.  The Department of Energy reached a settlement Thursday to recover $200 million in taxpayer funds from a loan the Obama administration distributed in 2011 to finance a $1 billion solar power plant that was deemed obsolete before it could officially go online.  The settlement between DOE and Tonopah Solar Energy must now be approved by a bankruptcy court, the Las Vegas Review Journal reported.  The DOE provided a $737 million loan to Tonopah in September 2011 for the purposes of financing the $1.1 billion Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project in Nevada.  The agency disbursed funds for the plant in 2011 and 2013 before the project experienced problems requiring improvements, rendering the Crescent Dunes obsolete by 2015, Bloomberg reported in January.

Barack Obama 'approved tapping Angela Merkel's phone 3 years ago'.  President Barack Obama was dragged into the trans-Atlantic spying row after it was claimed he personally authorised the monitoring of Angela Merkel's phone three years ago.  The president allegedly allowed US intelligence to listen to calls from the German Chancellor's mobile phone after he was briefed on the operation by Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency (NSA), in 2010.  The latest claim, reported in the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, followed reports in Der Spiegel that the surveillance of Mrs Merkel's phone began as long ago as 2002, when she was still the opposition leader, three years before being elected Chancellor.  That monitoring only ended in the weeks before Mr Obama visited Berlin in June this year, the magazine added.

Dan Bongino: 'The Obama Order That Changed Everything'.  Susan Rice's now infamous "by the book" email to herself was only one of the peculiar actions taken by the Obama Administration during those final days.  Stranger still was President Obama's January 12, 2017 executive order #12333 which allowed the National Security Agency to share globally intercepted personal communications with the government's other 16 intelligence agencies.

Former Obama Officials Tired of His Drunken, Late-Night Calls.  Members of the so-called "Obama Alumni Association" feel harassed and abused by the former president whose late-night, drunken conference calls have become annoying, frequent, and less coherent as time goes on.  Hennessy's View has learned that Obama began these occasional conference calls with a handful of former officials about six months after leaving office in 2017.  Over time, the 44th president stopped following a semi-weekly schedule of planned calls.  Instead, he began calling the team at random times, often late at night and, according to some, after he'd been drinking.

Report:  John Brennan Used Private Contractors to Unmask Trump Officials.  [Scroll down]  "Unmasking" an American is a major breach of people's privacy — attaching a name to a call that shouldn't have been eavesdropped on in the first place, not without a warrant.  So you're supposed to have a very strong intelligence or law enforcement pretext for doing so.  Instead, the Obama administration just stared unmasking every call made by Trump personnel "inadvertently" spied on by Obama's minions.  They did this so that the information could be leaked.  In his last days in office, Obama also changed the rules about who was allowed to see "unmasked' names.  Previously, the secret must be closely held — again, to keep some privacy for Americans wrongly spied on.  But Obama changed the rules so that the names could be propagated far and wide in government, with hundreds, possibly thousands, of people having access to unmasked names which are supposed to be a closely-held secret.  He did this so that anyone who wanted to leak the names to the press could not be caught — if just one or two people know the names, it would be easy to determine the leakers, and prosecute them.

U.S. Intel says Obama gave millions of dollars to Wuhan lab that produced coronavirus.  For once a reporter asked a pertinent question at a White House daily virus briefing.  On Friday one reporter asked President Trump if he was aware of U.S. Intelligence reports that the Obama administration sponsored the Wuhan lab, the same lab coronavirus may have come out of, to the tune of $3.7 million in 2015.  The president does not usually speak of ongoing intel matters and said he would follow up the query.  However, if it is true then the regime of the disgraced 44th president gave millions of U.S. tax dollars to a facility that was probably thought to be, even then, a biowarfare lab making toxins and viruses that target American troops and possibly American civilians.  If it is true it would represent a betrayal of U.S. interests on par with the worst of Obama's actions.

How the 'Evil Called Barack Obama' Enabled the Genocide of Nigerian Christians.  Not only is Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari behind what several international observers are calling a "genocide" of Christians in his nation, but Barack Hussein Obama played a major role in the Muslim president's rise to power.  These two interconnected accusations are increasingly being made — not by "xenophobic" Americans but Nigerians themselves, including several leaders and officials. [...] [John] Kerry's and [Hillary] Clinton's appeasement of Boko Haram — an Islamic terror organization notorious for massacring, enslaving, and raping Christians, and bombing and burning their churches — is apparently what connects them to this "sheer wickedness."

Flashback: The Obama-Biden Administration Repeatedly Sought Millions in CDC Cuts.  Joe Biden has made pandemic preparedness a theme of his attacks on President Trump in recent weeks.  But, according to analysis from Gregg Re at Fox News, the Obama-Biden administration repeatedly sought to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),  "seemingly undercutting former Vice President Joe Biden's repeated attacks on the Trump White House for its pandemic preparedness."  The budget requests are available online via the CDC website.  On many occasions, Democrats, including Biden, have falsely accused President Trump of slashing the CDC's budget.  Biden has used these false claims to suggest that he would never even propose similar cuts, let alone make them.  Fact checks from the Associated Press and FactCheck.org both proved the claims made by Biden and others to be wrong, because CDC funding actually increased during the Trump administration.

Did the Obama administration deplete the federal stockpile of N95 masks?  During the presidency of Barack Obama, the national stockpile was seriously taxed as the administration addressed multiple crises over eight years.  About "75 percent of N95 respirators and 25 percent of face masks contained in the CDC's Strategic National Stockpile (~100 million products) were deployed for use in health care settings over the course of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic response," according to a 2017 study in the journal Health Security.  Again according to NIH, the stockpile's resources were also used during hurricanes Alex, Irene, Isaac and Sandy.  Flooding in 2010 in North Dakota also called for stockpile funds to be deployed.  The 2014 outbreaks of the ebola virus and botulism, as well as the 2016 outbreak of the zika virus, continued to significantly tax the stockpile with no serious effort from the Obama administration to replenish the fund.

The Rebirth of Our Nation and the End of Globalism.  [Scroll down]  Under the watch of Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Barack Hussein Obama, the outsourcing to China continued unabated. [...] Obama's philosophy was to "lead from behind," and behind we fell.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that if one is behind, one is not in the lead, but Obama sold that unbelievable illogical slogan to millions of gullible empty heads.  For eight long years under Obama, our GDP never grew beyond 2%, and he shamelessly warned that without a magic wand, manufacturing jobs were never going to come back.  While cities throughout Asia and the Middle East were building new skyscrapers, our infrastructure was falling apart.  Highways, bridges, and city streets were old and in need of repair.  Many urban areas such as Detroit, Cleveland, Baltimore, and Los Angeles were rotting from within.

Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg News:  Federal stockpile of N95 masks was depleted under Obama and never restocked.  The national shortage of N95 respirator masks can be traced back to 2009 after the H1N1 swine flu pandemic, when the Obama administration was advised to replenish a national stockpile but did not, according to reports from Bloomberg News and the Los Angeles Times.  The Trump administration is scrambling to replenish a stockpile of protective medical gear for healthcare workers and patients, as the coronavirus sweeps across the nation.  N95 respirator masks are one of the most needed medical supplies amid the outbreak.

Obama Intervened, Repeatedly, in Ongoing Trials and Investigations.  Few of the critics who are treating President Donald Trump's comments on Roger Stone's sentencing — widely viewed as unduly harsh — as an attack on the rule of law showed such strong concerns when then-President Barack Obama weighed in, repeatedly, on ongoing trials or investigations.  In 2015, President Obama told CBS news that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of an unsecured private email server for her official communications may have been a "mistake," but added:  "I don't think it posed a national security problem."  The New York Times reported that FBI officials: "saw an instance of the president trying to influence the outcome of a continuing investigation — and not for the first time."

Wayback Machine:  Remember Obama's Iran Deal Pardons?  It wasn't too long ago, one year before he left office, that Barack Obama gave full pardons to men in prison at the behest — not of Alice Johnson or Alveda King — of the Iranian government as part of the Iran nuclear deal.  On January 16, in his last year of office, President Obama put the finishing touches on his dreadful Iran deal by giving full pardons to people with ties to the number one state sponsor of terrorism.

Humoring a Demon:  Top six ways Democrats coddled Soleimani.  If you want to know why Democrats are so hell-bent on condemning President Trump's wipe-out of Iran's Number Two, Qassem Soleimani, maybe a look at their record with this guy can tell some of the story.  This demon (as Mancow so flawlessly characterized him) was a powerful guy in hellhole Iran, and he extended his brutality well beyond Iran's borders.  He was responsible for the killings of hundreds of Americans in Iraq and beyond.  He amassed his power because under the Obama administration, favors were done in a way that enabled him to rise as Iran's Quds Force commander, racking up victory after victory at our expense.  Democrats helped him a lot in his revolting journey, dating from the genesis of the Ben Rhodes-Barack Obama Iran deal.  Here's a list of the top six things the Democrats did to enable him to get as powerful and depraved in his activity as he did: [...]

Laugh test:  Democrats claim high ground on defending Ukraine.  [Scroll down]  When President Barack Obama was in charge, he pursued a policy of a "reset" with Russia that included canceling a Europe-based missile defense plan.  His administration twiddled its thumbs as Putin annexed Crimea, and he resolutely refused to go as far as Trump has done in helping Ukraine, which has been to supply that besieged nation with lethal arms it requested and desperately needed.  Kyiv was keen to buy U.S. anti-tank platforms and anti-vehicle rifles.  It didn't want Obama's binoculars and blankets.

Report: Obama Administration Stopped Israel From Assassinating Soleimani in 2015.  When President Donald Trump gave the order to kill Iran's Quds Force leader Qasem Soleimani, he not only made an arguably proportionate response to the invasion of the U.S. Embassy this week but he also reversed a policy of the Obama administration.  According to a report from 2018, Israel was "on the verge" of assassinating Soleimani in 2015, but Obama's officials foiled the plan.  In fact, they reached out to Iran with news of Israel's plans.  The Trump administration, on the other hand, gave Israel a green light to assassinate Soleimani, according to a January 1, 2018 report from the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida.  The paper quoted a source in Jerusalem as saying that "there is an American-Israeli agreement" that Soleimani is a "threat to the two countries' interests in the region."

Iran Is Weak and Soleimani Is Still Dead.  Qassem Soleimani was in a Baghdad meeting with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the leader of Kataib Hezb'allah, his new pet militia — mere miles away from our embassy, and immediately subsequent to the militia's test-assault.  They were there to plot and execute more terrorist attacks on America.  Democrats ignore this.  One of these planned attacks was rumored to be a full-scale takeover of the embassy, as in Iran in 1979.  Incidentally, 1979 was the year Iran began its war on America.  Democrats like to pretend Obama didn't spend eight years burning down the world:  Barry invited Russia back into Syria (after a 25-year absence); gave Syria to Iran and Russia; destroyed Libya (without congressional authorization); gave Iraq to Iran, while guaranteeing Iran a nuclear weapon (in a few years) through the JCPOA non-treaty; as well as financing its worldwide terrorism network (run by Soleimani) with a $150 billion gift.  Plus, $1.4 billion in pallets of cash was paid as ransom for the return nine kidnapped and humiliated American sailors.  They also ignore that it was Barry who opened the floodgate of "refugees" and potential terrorists, now raping and pillaging their way across Europe, perhaps culturally transforming the continent forever (Barry was always big on "transformation").  It's almost as if Obama was working for Iran.

How Trump's Birther Inquiry Incited Obama's Revenge.  [Scroll down]  The next time "bogus documents" were discussed was when Donald Trump offered President Obama five million dollars for a certified copy of the president's birth certificate.  Under withering criticism, Mr. Trump claimed he had sent private investigators to Hawaii to see what they could find, that there was something on that birth certificate that President Obama didn't want the public to see.  Trump wasn't alone, as over 200 Americans went to court to challenge President Obama's bona fides.  Secretary of state Hillary Clinton immediately excoriated the real estate magnate for trying to "delegitimize" the first black president.  In a country of 330vmillion people, only Donald Trump was able to force President Obama to capitulate and produce a certificate of live birth.  This was hugely embarrassing for President Obama, and this gave him and the Democrats a motive to seek revenge.

China Proves It:  Obama Really Was A Sap.  A new report shows that Obama was easily duped.  Over the course of three years, Obama met with Chinese President Xi Jinping to, he said, agree to "climate targets" (in 2014), "lay out additional actions" (in 2015), and sign the Paris Agreement (2016).  In typical Obama understatement, he declared that "we may see this as the moment that we finally decided to save our planet."  Of course, anyone who looked at what China was promising could see that it was a sucker's bet.  China said only that it would try to "stabilize" CO2 emissions by 2030, while the rest of the industrialized world dumped money and resources into "decarbonizing" their economies.  Worse, even before Obama made his boast it was clear that China's state-controlled emissions data were unreliable.

The Editor says...
Barack H. Obama, our first Affirmative Action president, is no genius, but I don't think that's the issue here.  Obama only did what he was told by Valerie Jarrett.  This was a deal to benefit the Chinese communists, and then if necessary, pretend to have been swindled.

The Swamp's Swingline Stapler.  In December 2008, Barack Obama summarily fired every ambassador appointed by George W Bush.  The media did not care for four reasons.  First, it was Barack Obama.  Second, they recognized that the president controls the executive branch.  Third, it was a parting shiv to Bush.  Finally, it was Barack Obama.

Obama Granted Clemency to Terrorists and Traitors, But We're Supposed to be Angry at Trump's Pardons.  Barack Obama commuted the sentence of Bradley Manning (you may also know him as Chelsea), who leaked hundreds of thousands of sensitive documents to WikiLeaks.  A traitor in every sense, in 2013 Manning was convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison.  But, Bradley Manning became a hero of the political left for declaring himself to be transgender, and Obama made his controversial commutation days before leaving office.  Obama also commuted the sentence of convicted terrorist Oscar Lopez Rivera.  Lopez Rivera was a leader of the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña (FALN), a Puerto Rican terrorist group responsible for 130 attacks in the United States, and at least six deaths.  An unrepentant Lopez-Rivera was serving a 70-year sentence when Obama set him free.  Obama also granted clemency to hundreds of drug offenders he claimed were non-violent offenders who deserved a second chance, because of racism or something.

Impeachment hearings!  Is that all they've got?  [Scroll down]  Mark Meadows, one of our Republican heroes, commented that "What we saw today was two bureaucrats who have a Ukraine-first sentiment opposed to a President who has an America-first sentiment."  Truer words were never spoken.  These Democrats on the intel committee know Obama did nothing for Ukraine; he let the Russians move in and take Crimea.  Obama gave them blankets.  Obama was the Russian asset!  Trump gave Ukraine weapons to repel the Russians.  Taylor and Kent, the two Wednesday "witnesses" surely know this.  One of them admitted that Ukraine is in much better shape under Trump than it was under Obama!

Flashback: Obama Fired All Bush Appointed Ambassadors In 2008.  The former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testified Friday [11/15/2019] about President Donald Trump firing her amid an alleged "smear campaign," but firing ambassadors appointed by former presidents is commonplace.  Former President Barack Obama fired all ambassadors appointed by former President George W. Bush in 2008, The Washington Post previously reported.  Yovanovitch testified Friday that the Trump administration, including the president's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, "kneecapped" her.  She said State Department leaders did not support her after being recalled in May.  "Political ambassadors sometimes are permitted to stay on briefly during a new administration, but the sweeping nature of the directive suggests that Obama has little interest in retaining any of Bush's ambassadorial appointees," WaPo's 2008 article about Obama's decision to fire all political ambassadors reads.

Was it Trump's magic wand that turned the Washington Post into a laughingstock?  Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was an ISIS leader.  He was a very, very bad man.  In 2009, we had him captured and imprisoned in Iraq.  For some utterly inexplicable reason, President Obama released him from Camp Bucca.  Thereafter, Baghdadi and his troops took over the Iraqi cities of Fallujah, Ramadi, Tikrit and Mosul, and threatened Baghdad.  Along the way they burned down everything in their path and tortured and murdered civilians, soldiers and police officers. [...] Baghdadi photographed and publicized how he and his fellow butchers roasted alive men hogtied over flames, burned whole families with their children in cages, drowned prisoners in cages, raped and murdered thousands of Yazidi women and girls, and beheaded, shot, and blew up countless thousands of people. [...] From his teens, he was fascinated with Islamic history and the intricacies of Islamic law.  Acquaintances would remember him as a shy, nearsighted youth who liked soccer but preferred to spend his free time at the local mosque.

Where were the whistleblowers on foreign policy during Obama's terms?  Where was the outrage by the media and other Democrats when the Obama Administration prosecuted eight whistleblowers for spying?  There was little or no concern when:
  Obama reneged on a commitment to put in missile defense shields in Poland and the Czech Republic to appease Russia.
  Obama said he would be flexible with Russia if he was reelected.
  Obama pulled troops in Iraq despite being told that was not a good idea.
  Obama called ISIS a JV team.
  Obama/Hillary left Democrats unprotected in Benghazi.
  Obama/Hillary didn't lift a finger to save Americans under attack.
  Obama, Hillary and others concocted a lie about a video that they told to the public and to the families of those who died to protect their political power.
  Obama lied about terrorists being on the run.

Trump Gave Ukraine What Obama Withheld.  [Scroll down]  Flash back to 2012 when President Obama promised Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, South Korea that after his re-election he would have more "flexibility" to weaken missile defense and otherwise weaken U.S. resistance to Russian ambitions and aggressions[.]  In March, 2009, Hillary Clinton had presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with that infamous red "reset button" to symbolize improved ties, but the gift drew smiles as the word "reset" was mistranslated into the Russian for "overcharge" Something else was lost in the translation as well, apparently, as Russian, belligerence and intransigence continued.  Russian President Vladimir Putin's seizure of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in early 2014 was the direct result of Obama's promised flexibility.  The Obama-Biden administration effectively did nothing in response.  That didn't jeopardize U.S. national security?

Even Alaskans Suffer From Dems' Failed Border Policies.  With Juneau located some 2,000 miles from California's San Ysidro border crossing, one would be mistaken for believing that Alaskans are immune to our nation's illegal immigration crisis.  The Obama administration's lax enforcement policies precipitated dramatic increases in heroin deaths as well as a weighty financial burden on Alaska's taxpayers.  Now, as the current administration and congressional Republicans work to undo these misguided decisions, a new crop of Democratic presidential candidates have irresponsibly promised to open our borders should they reclaim the White House.

Obama, Not Trump, Outed Russian Spy.  President Trump did not cause the Central Intelligence Agency to withdraw a top-level spy from Russia.  Obama did.  And so did indiscreet intelligence officials.  CNN's report to the contrary is false, as usual.  CNN has a track record of fake news, including false and biased reporting that elevates white supremacists.  On Monday [9/9/2019], CNN bragged of an "exclusive" report that "the United States successfully extracted from Russia one of its highest-level covert sources inside the Russian government" partly because "President Donald Trump and his administration repeatedly mishandled classified intelligence and could contribute to exposing the covert source as a spy."  In fact, however, officials "mishandled intelligence" and tried to extricate this source in 2016, before Trump even won the presidential election.

No One Noticed When Clinton and Obama Abused Whistleblowers.  [Scroll down]  President Obama promised to be different.  In his official campaign documents, candidate Obama presented himself as a whistleblower's best friend, this in high relief to his predecessor who "stifled" the "courage and patriotism" of those who dared speak out.  As Thomas Drake can attest, Obama fell rather spectacularly short of his promises.  Drake, an Air Force veteran and NSA analyst, objected, as did others, to an NSA data collection program known as TrailBlazer.  Drake testified honestly when the accusations of waste, fraud, and mismanagement reached the Inspectors General office in the Department of Defense.  The Inspectors General report substantiated Drake's testimony, but that did not stop NSA management from persisting with TrailBlazer and punishing Drake with a purgatory of petty assignments.  In November 2007, Drake's life took a turn for the Kafkaesque when a dozen FBI agents raided his house for allegedly leaking info about the NSA's warrantless wiretap program.

U.S. Navy Shut Down Climate Change Task Force.  The U.S. Navy shut down its Task Force Climate Change (TFCC), which was established by President Barack Obama in 2009, reported E&E News' Greenwire.  The closure was quiet and occurred in March, according to Greenwire, and "the group's tab on the Navy's energy, environment and climate change website was removed sometime between March and July."  The purpose of the TFCC was to evaluate how climate change affects or could affect Naval and national security operations.

James Mattis's Blistering Criticism of Obama.  [Scroll down]  Mattis's critique of Obama isn't just harsh.  It's blistering.  Mattis's tenure at Central Command lasted from 2010 to 2013.  It was during this time that the Obama administration took steps that diminished American influence in the greater Middle East and empowered Iran.  The spillover effect includes the migrant crisis that contributed to the rise of national populism in Europe.  Mattis dissented from Obama policy.  "In 2010," he writes, "I argued strongly against pulling all our troops out of Iraq."  When the Arab Spring came to Egypt in 2011, "I thought we should use quiet diplomacy to urge inclusive government."  Obama instead called for Hosni Mubarak to resign.

Obama Swept Iran Terror Plot Under the Rug.  Former Defense Secretary James Mattis has a book coming out in which he is harshly critical of President Obama.  Among other things, he recalls his dissent from Obama's decision to pull troops out of Iraq prematurely, which had nearly-disastrous consequences.

Democrats are Officially the Party of Derangement.  Obama had no executive experience but he was a community organizer and he managed to pull the wool over the eyes of the majority of the electorate — twice. [...] His reach was far and wide both domestically and internationally.  Healthcare, education, separation of powers, federal courts at all levels, the Mideast, relationships with allies and enemies, and elevating Iran from terrorist-sponsor and Islamist pariah to international acceptance and regional hegemon were just a few of his "accomplishments."  A generation of Democrats openly seeking totalitarian socialism is now, however, his legacy.

President Trump Shatters Left-Wing Myths.  President Trump is boldly providing much-needed relief to the American people.  He is untying us from the bonds of political correctness that have, in un-American fashion, forced Americans to accept liberal myths and farces. [...] Barack Obama used his Presidency to criticize and malign America, label America a racist society, weaken us around the world, diminish the importance of Christian religious freedom, and extol thugs like Al Sharpton and traitors like Bo Bergdahl.

How Obama Destroyed Black Wealth.  The Obama presidency was a disaster for middle-class wealth in the United States.  Between 2007 and 2016, the average wealth of the bottom 99 percent dropped by $4,500.  Over the same period, the average wealth of the top 1 percent rose by $4.9 million.  This drop hit the housing wealth of African Americans particularly hard.  Outside of home equity, black wealth recovered its 2007 level by 2016.  But average black home equity was still $16,700 lower.  Much of this decline, we will argue, can be laid at the feet of President Obama.  His housing policies led directly to millions of families losing their homes.

Ten Years Into Obama's Russia 'Reset'.  By the time Obama took office, in 2009, Russia's rising threat was already spelled out in such horrors as the 2006 murder in London of a former Russian agent, Alexander Litvinenko, his tea spiked with radioactive polonium-210.  During Bush's final year in office, in 2008, Russia had launched a war with the neighboring country of Georgia.  The time had come for the U.S. superpower, leader of the Free World, to draw a line.  Instead, Obama rolled out a red carpet of appeasement, effectively inviting Vladimir Putin to press ahead with the consolidation of despotic rule at home and the reincarnation of Cold-War-style threats and aggression abroad.  Obama's 2009 reset came not only with a big red button, but, in deference to Putin's wishes, the betrayal of American allies in Eastern Europe.  Obama shelved the installation of missile defense systems promised by Bush to Poland and the Czech Republic.  In July 2009, Obama went to Moscow, where he breakfasted on caviar with Putin and emerged to praise him for "the extraordinary work you've done on behalf of the Russian people."

Democrat Lawmaker and Teamster President: 'Chaos' in Schools Since Obama-Era Discipline Policy.  A Democrat state senator and a Teamsters president said the dramatic drop in school suspensions in New York City since the Obama-era policy urging more lenient forms of discipline for minority students has led to "chaos" and a lack of "accountability" for dangerous behavior.  New York state Sen. Leroy Comrie told CBS New York that schools in his Queens district are losing the confidence of parents.  "They're taking their children to other schools even if they have to pay for private schools," he said.  "They don't want to have to have their children in an environment where they're assaulted and there's no accountability."

A Democrat Deflates a Trump 'Scandal'.  [Scroll down]  Here is a Democratic lawmaker, steeped in a home-state issue, calling this what it was:  an Obama administration perversion of policy and law, done to appease green donors.

Trump Administration Revokes Obama-Era School Leniency Policy for Minorities.  The Trump administration has revoked an Obama-era policy that urged public schools to employ more lenient forms of discipline for students of color and of other minority groups.  On Friday [12/21/2018], the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice rescinded the Obama administration's 2014 "Dear Colleague Letter" that a federal school safety commission said "may have paradoxically contributed to making schools less safe."

It's Time to Get Real About Our Enemies.  [Scroll down]  Federal support for radicalism exploded under Obama.  He illegally transferred money from the U.S. Treasury — some $500 million, not small seed money — and distributed it among leftist nonprofits like La Raza, to create havoc in the name of social justice.  His own organization, Organize for Action, for which he raised money as president, has a database of 2 million volunteers.  We are talking about billions of dollars in total and tens of thousands of professional activists — or more.  That pays for a lot of agitation, lawsuits, demonstrations, and "resistance."  That's why the country is in turmoil.

The Fatuous Democrats.  Practically the entire Obama legacy was Obamacare, Green Empowerment and the Paris Climate Accord, and the Iran Nuclear Treaty.  All were disasters and all have been dismembered or repudiated.

What Trump Knows That Obama Didn't.  We now know why President Obama had to struggle so hard to spur the economy and allow it to grow more than 2 percent a year.  And that was the high-water mark.  In the last quarter of his presidency, growth had slipped to 1.5 percent.  Today it's obvious what Obama's problem was.  He had the wrong policies, lots of them.  How do we know this?  Obama's successor, Donald Trump, and the Republican Congress reversed Obama's policies.  The result, from the day Trump was elected, has been a more robust economy.  Nearly 4 million jobs have been added, and unemployment has dipped to the lowest point in nearly a half-century.  Let's compare what Obama did with what Trump is doing. [...]

Flashback 2016: Secretary of State John Kerry Admits President Obama Intentionally Armed ISIS in Syria.  When you listen to the audio recording (embedded [in this article]) it becomes immediately obvious what was going on in 2014, 2015 and 2016 as an outcome of policy from the White House.  In addition, you discover why this jaw-dropping 2016 leak/story was buried by the U.S. media and how it connects to the prior 4 years of perplexing U.S. mid-east policy.  This evidence within this single story would/should forever remove any credibility toward the U.S. foreign policy under President Obama.  It also destroys the credibility of a large number of well known republicans, and explains how the prior action placed President Trump into a precarious position requiring a careful approach.

Top Obama Advisor Valerie Jarrett Mocks Trump For Hosting Kanye.  That's A Big Mistake.  On Thursday [10/11/2018], Valerie Jarrett, the top advisor to former President Barack Obama, ridiculed President Trump for meeting with rapper Kanye West, defending CNN's Don Lemon for attacking the visit and huffing that her former boss would never have invited someone who used language like West's to the White House.

The article above went on to list numerous examples to the contrary, as does the article below.

Kanye Fallout:  Where Was the Media's Outrage Over Obama's Questionable White House Guests?  [Scroll down]  For example, Obama hosted the rapper Common at the White House in 2011, even though he rapped about burning George W. Bush alive; even so, Jake Tapper, who was at ABC at the time, declared that Common was "not particularly controversial."  Obama was also close with rapper Jay-Z and his wife Beyoncé; the couple visited the White House on multiple occasions during Obama's time in office and they did not receive any flack from mainstream outlets, though they're hardly the most wholesome people.  During her Super Bowl halftime performance in 2016, Beyoncé flashed a "Black Power" symbol; and as a member of Destiny's Child, she was on a track called, "Bootylicious" — the subject matter of which is pretty self-explanatory.  Her husband, Jay-Z has also admitted to selling crack cocaine.

Court: Obama Admin Dodged State Laws To Get Illegal Minors Abortions.  Last week, a federal judge in California dismissed a lawsuit the American Civil Liberties Union had filed in 2016 challenging the government's award of grants to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to provide services to unaccompanied minor illegal aliens and trafficking victims.  In the lawsuit, the ACLU argued the grants violated the Establishment Clause because the Department of Health and Human Services allowed the Catholic organization (and its sub-grantees) to deny girls and women in their care contraceptives and abortion.  The court rejected the ACLU's Establishment Clause claim in a methodical 34-page opinion, explaining that the federal funds were not used to endorse or advance religion.  Further, as the San Francisco-based federal judge stressed, the government would transfer minors to other facilities if there were a conflict between the services sought and the religious tenets of the organization running the shelter.

Lawsuit Against Obama Officials Proceeding.  U.S. Navy Petty Officer First Class Saucier, a machinist's mate on the submarine USS Alexandria from September 2007 to March 2012, went to prison for an infraction of the sort that the U.S. military normally deals with administratively.  Saucier used his cellphone to snap photographs of the vessel's nuclear propulsion system while the ship was docked at the Naval Submarine Base in Groton, Conn.  Saucier said he took pictures to show his future children what he did aboard the submarine.  He was convicted of felony unauthorized retention of national defense information and obstruction of justice. [...] Months after Saucier was sentenced, President Obama infamously commuted the prison sentence of U.S. Army Private Chelsea Manning whose leaking of sensitive U.S. government documents may have cost Americans and friendly foreign assets their lives.

2001 video shows Obama admitting being a 'thug,' fighting, drinking, drugging in high school.  The standards being applied to Judge Brett Kavanaugh's fitness for high office would have killed the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama, among other recent Democrats (Clinton and Kennedy, for starters).  Bill Clinton has adopted a low public profile and deployed Hillary's "Bimbo Eruptions" squad to silence and discredit the female "survivors" of his sexual aggression.  But Barack Obama went on the record in 2001, and nobody cared about behavior in high school they now feign outrage over in the case of Judge Kavanaugh.  Kudos to Ryan Saavedra of The Daily Wire for uncovering a video from 17 years ago in which Barack Obama discusses his own behavior in high school.

Resurfaced Video: Obama Admits to Heavy Drinking, Drug Use During School Years.  The media and the Democrat Party weren't always such Puritan prudes.  There was a time when a man could hold the highest office in the land and it didn't matter that he was an avid pot-smoker, drank heavily, or used other illegal drugs like cocaine.  Now, a video has resurfaced, in which Barack Obama freely admits that as a high school and college student, he frequently partook in heavy drinking — to the tune of "a six-pack in an hour" — was a "thug," and used illegal drugs.

10 Days In Advance Of Benghazi Attack, New Documents Show Obama Knew It Was Coming.  Following a court order and a Freedom of Information Act request, documents from the Defense Department show that they knew there was a plan to attack Benghazi a full ten days before it happened.  One hundred pages of documents that were previously classified as "secret" by the DOD and the State Department show that the White House knew that both Al Qaeda and a group linked to the Muslim Brotherhood had spent more than a week planning the attack which took place on September 12th, 2012.  The Battle of Benghazi began in the early hours of the morning and resulted in the deaths of CIA contractors Tyrone S. Woods and Glen Doherty along with Ambassador Chris Stevens and Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith.

Obama State Dept.  Gave Soros $9 Million To Support 'Socialist-Communist' Activities.  The Obama State Dept. and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2016 sent $9 million in U.S. taxpayer funds to a Soros-backed group, which used the money to fund far-left political activities in Albania, newly released documents show.  According to the watchdog website, Judicial Watch, which obtained the 32 pages of records through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, the American tax dollars were used to help the country's socialist government push for highly controversial judicial "reform."  The records also provide insight into how the Soros operation "helped the State Department review grant applications from other groups for taxpayer funding."

Here are 1,366 well sourced examples of Barack Obama's lies, lawbreaking, corruption, cronyism, hypocrisy, waste, etc..  [#120] As part of Obama's "green energy" program, Obama used tax money to pay for a train full of biofuel to cross the U.S.-Canadian border 24 times without unloading its cargo. [...] [#138] Obama used taxpayer money to hire a "mindreader."

Three Ways Obama Caused the Syrian Disaster.  Obama owns the disaster in Syria in a way that no one else does.  Three of his policies intersected to cause the bloodshed, devastation and horrors there.
    [#1]   The Iraq Withdrawal
    [#2]   The Arab Spring
    [#3]   The Iran Deal
Obama's Iraq withdrawal turned the country over to Iran and ISIS.  The tensions between the Shiite puppet regime in Baghdad (which Obama insisted on backing) and the Sunni population created a cycle of violence that reduced the country to a bloody civil war between Shiite militias and Al Qaeda in Iraq.

The Terrible Cost of Obama's Failure in Syria.  Four years ago, it almost looked as if chemical attacks on Syrian civilians would stop.  "We struck a deal where we got 100 percent of the chemical weapons out," declared then-Secretary of State John Kerry on Meet the Press in 2014.  Kerry was referring to Bashar al-Assad's declared stockpiles of chemical weapons which, under a 2013 deal struck by the Obama administration following a sarin nerve gas attack that brought the U.S. to the brink of striking Syrian government forces, were dismantled and shipped out of the country.  But there were two important and deadly loopholes.

Broward School Violence:  Cruz's Massacre Is Far From the Whole Story.  Broward County, Fla., school officials portray as a great success their Obama administration-inspired program offering counseling to students who break the law, instead of having them arrested or expelled.  They insist that it played no role in February's school massacre by Nikolas Cruz.  They also claim that in fact juvenile recidivism rates are down and school safety is up, thanks to the program.  The evidence tells a far different story.  Broward County juvenile justice division records, federal studies of Broward school district safety and the district's own internal reporting show that years of "intensive" counseling didn't just fail to reform repeat offender Cruz, who allegedly went on to shoot and kill 17 people at his high school.  Records show such policies have failed to curtail other campus violence and its effects now on the rise in district schools — including fighting, weapons use, bullying and related suicides.

Obama Accused of Obstructing Battle against Boko Haram to Promote Axelrod's Nigerian Muslim Client.  When the notorious Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram, kidnapped 278 school girls from the town of Chibok in northeastern Nigeria last year, Michelle Obama began a Twitter hashtag campaign, #BringBackOurGirls.  But behind the scenes, the Obama administration was undermining Nigeria's efforts to take the battle to the terrorists.  Obama refused to sell Nigeria arms and supplies critical to the fight, and stepped in to block other Western allies from doing so.

Why Did Obama Care So Little About Child Sex Trafficking?  He talked about how much he cared about people but over and over again the actual results of his presidency told a far different story.  From tens of millions more enslaved by welfare, to drone bombings of civilians, most of them women and children in the Middle East, to worsening race relations and putting targets on the backs of law enforcement, to a further widening between the haves and have-nots, Barack Obama decimated innocent lives both here at home and abroad.  His record of largely ignoring the plague that is human sex trafficking, much of it involving children, might very well be the most troubling aspect of his many failings.

Obama's Strategy:  Planned Failure.  Obama's attack on the energy sector was two-pronged.  Part of it was planned failure.  The other was basic corruption. [...] Obama actively worked to destabilize the Middle East throughout his presidency.  You can see it in the hasty withdrawal from Iraq (that every single general opposed), the abandonment of allies in Egypt, the bombing campaign in Libya, the Iran nuclear deal and the indecision and inaction in Syria.  Every one of these decisions was clearly aimed at destabilization.  As many presidents before him, Obama's choices were motivated by oil.  What separates him is that he wanted oil prices to skyrocket, and they did.

America Is Finally Catching Up on Clean Coal.  That the Obama administration was out to severely curtail fossil fuel use is well known.  The former president's scorn for coal was abundantly obvious, and the Paris agreement was its embodiment.  Despite proclaiming the U.S. the "Saudi Arabia of coal," in May 2008, Obama soon back-flipped once in office and turned against the resource.  Within a year, Obama unleashed the war on coal when he proposed a nationwide cap-and-trade system targeting local plants, stifling coal companies with excessive regulation, and cutting billions in funding for clean coal projects across the country.  Worse, what remained of the federal grants for such projects was allowed to be willfully misspent.  In an example of the utter incompetence of the Obama White House, power firm Summit Power Group squandered parts of a $450-million stimulus grant on absurd excesses rather than using the money to advance a long sought after clean coal project in Texas.

FBI testimony confirms Obama DOJ ordered 500,000 fugitives purged from background check database.  While Democrats throw tantrums over who should and shouldn't have guns, it seems the Obama administration was pretty adept at getting weapons into the hands of some people.  Acting FBI deputy director David Bowdich confirmed that it was a decision made under the direction of the Obama administration that led to more than half a million fugitives with outstanding arrest warrants to have their names removed from a national database.

Obama DOJ Forced FBI To Delete 500,000 Fugitives From Background Check Database.  The Justice Department under Barack Obama directed the FBI to drop more than 500,000 names of fugitives with outstanding arrest warrants from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, acting FBI deputy director David Bowdich testified Wednesday [3/14/2018].  Fugitives from justice are barred from buying a firearm under federal law.  But what is a fugitive from justice?  That definition has been under debate by the FBI and the ATF.  According to The Washington Post, the FBI considered any person with an outstanding arrest warrant to be a fugitive.  On the other hand, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives defined a fugitive as someone who has an outstanding arrest warrant and has crossed state lines.

Teacher Coalition Seeks to End Obama School Discipline Policy: 'A Lot of Fear in Schools'.  The school discipline policy that may have allowed Nikolas Cruz to escape arrest by Broward County law enforcement and ultimately purchase the firearm he used to kill 17 people is in effect in over 50 school districts across the country.  "He probably wouldn't have been able to buy the murder weapon if the school had referred him to law enforcement," veteran FBI agent Michael Biasello told RealClearInvestigations (RCI).  In 2014, the Obama administration issued a "Dear Colleague" guidance that threatened school districts — whose disciplinary measures showed a disproportionately greater number of minority students affected — could be subject to investigation by the Departments of Justice and Education, regardless of whether the behaviors leading to the discipline were unacceptable.

The Real Reason Barack Obama Was Touting The Saudi-Funded Global Warming/Climate Change Hysteria.  The Saudis (as well as Russia and China) spent billions of dollars in media propaganda, university funding, political donations, United Nations funding etc. during Barack Obama's eight years in office to further push the global warming agenda.  None of that effort had anything to do with global warming/climate change though. [...] It should also be noted that that same forces behind all the global warming/climate change propaganda are also the same ones funding the open borders and gun restrictions movement in America as well.  There is no greater collusion of foreign influence upon this country's political process than that.

U.S. Civil Rights Commissioners:  Obama-Era School Leniency Policy Brings 'Fear' and 'Danger'.  Two members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights say the Obama-era school leniency policy that discourages reports of threatening behavior by minority students to law enforcement is dangerous.  "Many schools that have adopted lenient disciplinary policies — i.e., defining offenses down so that blacks and Hispanics aren't suspended or expelled at significantly higher rates than whites and Asians — have seen marked increases in the number and severity of offenses," attorney Peter Kirsanow, a Republican member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, tells Breitbart News.  "St. Paul is just one example, but numerous districts across the country have reported spikes in violence against teachers and students, as well as other forms of disruptive behavior."

Barack Obama Declines to Honor the Late Billy Graham in Person.  Former President Obama is a big fan of oratory, but he often doesn't need to say what he thinks for us to know how he really feels.  Yesterday [2/28/2018], elected Democrats and Republicans gathered in the Capitol Dome to pay respects to the late Billy Graham, an evangelical pastor who had a relationship with every American president since Harry Truman.

Here Is What Obama Did This Week Instead Of Attending Billy Graham's Funeral.  Earlier this week, a spokesperson for Barack Obama notified the press that the former president would not be attending any of the memorial services for legendary evangelical minister Billy Graham.  There was no specific reason given for Obama's absence.

The Cascading Failures of Government.  As Judicial Watch has demonstrated countless times through its work, the operations of the government — at the federal, state, and local levels — and its failures are a direct threat to American lives, as we've ceded personal control to this growing monolith. [...] In the case of the Parkland high school shooting, the cascade of failures began at the very top of government, with Barack Obama and his push to reduce the number of disruptive students sent into the "school-to-prison pipeline."  Like so many feel-good leftist initiatives, the unintended consequences of this Obama policy contributed to disaster.

Obama said we can't drill our way to energy independence.  Actually, we did..  In 2012, no less an authority than Barack Obama told us that calling for increased production by increased drilling — "drill, baby, drill," he called it — was not a plan, but rather "a bumper sticker."  Mr. Obama assured us, "You know, we can't just drill our way to lower gas prices," as if all the people who disagreed with him were simply refusing to admit that, deep down, they were wrong and he was right.

The Editor says...
"Drill, baby, drill" was a campaign slogan used by Sarah Palin, not Barack H. Obama.

FBI bureaucratic failures and willful blindness rack up a horrifying body count.  For POTUS 44, the Fort Hood attack was not terrorism or even "gun violence."  The mass murder was "workplace violence" and [Robert] Mueller had no problem with that.  POTUS 44, who as Barry Soetoro attended a Muslim school in Indonesia, proclaimed that the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.Robert He also ordered that the FBI must not consider any links between Islam and terrorist attacks against the United States.  Mueller duly purged hundreds of counter-terrorism training materials of any hint that Islamic terrorists might pose a security problem.  CAIR boss Nihad Awad thanked Mueller for his "pledge" to review FBI counterterrorism training.  So Mueller slavishly put political correctness above the safety of the American people, and that doubtless explains why the FBI looked the other way as the Tsarnaevs, Omar Mateen and others plotted their deadly actions.

Obama Artist Paints Black Women Holding Severed White Heads.  While America is captivated by the newly released portraits of former President Obama and first lady Michelle, there's something curious about Obama's artist that's raising eyebrows:  He apparently enjoys painting portraits of black women holding the severed heads of white people.  Kehinde Wiley, a New York artist who paints primarily African-American subjects in heroic poses, was chosen by former President Obama to create a portrait of the 44th president to be displayed at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.  Wiley's portrait of Obama was unveiled Monday.

The Editor says...
Obama's favorite portrait artist appears to be a racist with unmitigated black-on-white violence depicted in his previous works, in addition to being black and homosexual.  Why do you supposed Obama likes this guy so much?

The artist is also incompetent -- just like Obama.
Rush Limbaugh Speaks Out on New Official Obama Portraits — 'Faded Watercolors'.  Conservative radio show host Rush Limbaugh had a lot to say Monday [2/12/2018] about the unveiling ceremony for the official portraits of former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle.  In addition to blasting the mainstream media's adoring coverage of the portraits, Limbaugh also took aim at the paintings themselves — particularly Michelle's — noting that her portrait looks like "faded watercolors."

What's wrong with Obama's hand in that official portrait?  Here's the problem:  it's not drawn very well.  The work shows a lack of skill in the basic rendering of an image.  The hands are out of proportion in size, even placed in the foreground, overly big. [...] Another problem is that the wrist is exaggerated in its thinness.  No man has wrists that thin unless his entire stature is diminutive — again, which Obama's is not.  The artist shows an embarrassingly weak ability to draw.

A Racist Con-Man:  Obama's Portrait Artist, Who Hires Cheap Chinese Labor To Paint "His" Work, Says "Kill Whitey" Is A Major Theme.  Since Obama's portrait was unveiled, I've received a flurry of text messages from outraged artist friends I made while living in New York.  No, they weren't outraged because they saw Kehinde Wiley's other painting that feature black women murdering white women.  They were outraged because Kehinde Wiley is a terrible artist who only rose to prominence, something they have been attempting to do their entire lives, in the art world because he is a racist gay black man.  And if that werent enough:  he doesn't even paint his own work.

Barack Obama's official portrait artist once painted black women Beheading white women in controversial works he described as 'a play on the "kill whitey" thing'.  The artist who painted former President Barack Obama's official portrait has come under fire for past works featuring scandalous subjects.  There are at least two instances where Kehinde Wiley, 41, has painted portraits of black women holding a knife in one hand and the decapitated head of a white woman in the other.  Both portraits also juxtapose the austere images of the women by featuring a busy floral background, similar to Obama's portrait.

Behind the Portrait of Barack Obama.  Barack Obama's selection of Kehinde Wiley for his portrait is proving to be more atrocious than the painting itself.  The major media outlets, though, such as CNBC, were quick to observe a momentous occasion, breathlessly reporting that "The Obamas made history not only as the country's first African-American presidential couple featured in the gallery but also for selecting the first African-American painters to receive a presidential portrait commission from the museum."  That same CNBC piece also recounted the history of Obama's personal selection of Wiley, writing that Obama "thinks 'it's safe to say Kehinde and I bonded'" and "how much he and Wiley had in common."

Barack Obama's portrait may have been made in China.  Was the presidential portrait of Barack Obama made in China?  Sources say artist Kehinde Wiley — who painted the former president before a background of greenery and flowers — has studios in China and produces most of his work there.  "It's his base of operation," said art critic Charlie Finch, who has known Wiley and appreciated his talent since they were students at Yale.  "He has dozens of assistants working for him."  While Obama sat for Wiley for several hours, the portrait may have been sent to China to be completed.

The Obama Portraits:  But Is It Art?  The recently unveiled Obama portraits are of a type that I have seen many times in my career as an artist and art historian.  The poses are wooden, the compositions hackneyed, and both subjects have obviously been copied from photographs.  To make up for the technical weakness of the painting's execution, the artist relies on gimmicks to drag their image over the finish line, hoping that that will mask his limited technical abilities, or at least divert attention from them.

The Editor says...
Maybe so, but the artist is black and homosexual, which is really all that matters.

Strange Facts About Obama's Portrait and its Painter Kehinde Wiley.  Wiley is mostly known for his colorful depictions of young black males over classical backdrops inspired from masterworks. [...] In a 2015 interview with CBS News, Wiley stated that he often added sperm cells inside paintings to "take masculinity and all of its bravado down to its most essential component". [...] The fact that Wiley often recruits his models from the streets of New York to portray them in a lavish, sexually-charged fashion has been deemed "exploitative".

Why Obama pardoned Gen Cartwright on his last day in office.  Obama pardoned Gen Cartwright on his last day in office, for leaking secrets to the NYT about Stuxnet (the US-Israeli cyber attacks on Iran).  Oh -- and if this incredible thread is true, he just happens to be the grandfather of Peter Strzok's first cousin, Devin.  Cartwright, 'Obama's favorite General', was a key member of Obama's natsec team and head of the U.S. Strategic Command.  His leak to the media wasn't revealed until 2016.  He later pleaded guilty for lying to FBI agents pursuing an investigation into the leak.  In March 2015, the Washington Post reported that the sensitive leak investigation had "stalled amid concerns that a prosecution in federal court could force the government to confirm" information about the highly classified program.  Who was the investigator?  Rod Rosenstein.

The Obama Administration Is Directly Responsible For The Latest Gas Attacks On Syrian Civilians.  Now evidence is emerging that lays responsibility for Syrian regime nerve agent attacks squarely on Barack Obama and the merry band of cretins and imbeciles that comprised our foreign policy team.

Barack the Brick-Thrower.  In 2006, U.S. senator Obama traveled to Kenya on the taxpayer's dime at a time that coincidentally corresponded with Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leaders strategizing to help Muslim-sympathizer Raila Odinga unseat incumbent President Mwai Kibaki.  Obama delivered the $1 million he had raised for the Luo tribesman's bid for the presidency and showed up at rallies with Odinga, where he criticized Kibaki and preached "hope and change."  After Obama's alleged distant cousin lost by more than 200,000 votes, Kibaki appointed Odinga prime minister in a power-sharing deal, but not before Alinsky-style chaos broke out in the streets.  When it was over, the new prime minister's sharia-supporters had killed thousands of Kenyans, destroyed 800 Christian churches, and incinerated fifty Christian believers inside an Assemblies of God.

U.S. Should Return Cuba to Terror List, Experts Say.  President Trump should further unwind President Obama's directives on Cuba and once again designate the communist nation as a state sponsor of terrorism, a panel of Cuban and diplomatic experts told Congress last week.  The panel included Cuban-born U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela under George H.W. Bush Otto Reich, Heritage Foundation analyst Ana Quintana and the Cuban Studies Institute's Jaime Suchlicki.  Quintana argued that Cuba never met the standard to be removed from the State Department list in the first place.

Pentagon: Obama's DOD Gave Security Clearances to Contractors Charged with Felonies, Including Pedophilia.  The Pentagon was forced last year to rescind interim security clearances granted under the Obama administration to at least 165 contractors linked to various crimes, including felony convictions for pedophilia and foreign government affiliations, revealed a report issued by the Director of the Defense Security Service (DSS).  According to the report, DOD contractors preserved their ability to access sensitive government information despite prior criminal records and other illicit past activity that the Pentagon's vetting process failed to detect.

Obama caught with 165 criminals illegally on payroll.  In a report released on Wednesday by the Department of Defense, details showed Obama's administration had given illegal security clearances to government contractors with criminals backgrounds.  Felons.  Foreign agents.  And, yes, at least one child rapist.  All on Obama's payroll.

If you or I had done this, it would have been considered an act of treason.
Former Obama Official Hints Admin Warned Terrorist That Israel Was Going To Assassinate Him.  The former spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council under former President Barack Obama lashed out over a recent report from a Kuwaiti newspaper about how the Obama administration prevented Israel from assassinating a man with strong ties to terrorism by warning Iran about their plans.  The New York Times' Bret Stephens tweeted out an article from Haaretz quoting the newspaper saying that three years prior to its report, the U.S. thwarted an Israeli attempt to kill Iranian general Qassem Soleimani who is the commander of the Quds Force, a US-designated sponsor of terrorism.

Did Obama Tip Off Iran to Israeli Plan to Take Out World's Premier Terrorist?  It seems that with each passing day, another layer of deceit and betrayal committed by the Obama administration is uncovered.  The latest Obama scandal involves a reported effort by the administration to thwart an Israeli operation to liquidate Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani.  The Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida reported that three years ago, Israel was on the verge of liquidating Soleimani near Damascus but the Obama administration tipped off Teheran of Israel's plans.  Soleimani is no ordinary general.  He is arguably the world's premier terrorist and is commander of Iran's Quds Force, a branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, responsible for its overseas mischief-making.  Where there is drugs, misery and conflict, it's a sure bet that Soleimani and his Quds Force are involved.

Confirmed: Trump Is, Indeed, a Very Stable Genius.  [Scroll down]  Let's look at ISIS, Obama's bastard Middle Eastern child.  Maybe he should have called them "the Snows" instead of "Daesh," an appellation he used instead of "ISIS." It is an acronym for the Arabic phrase "al-Dawla al-Islamiya al-Iraq al-Sham."  Everything Barry did had to have a little sham to it.  Obama said it would be a long fight comprising years of costly sacrifice in the form of American blood and treasure.  You see, he had strict rules of engagement, dictating that American forces were not allowed to shoot first or return fire if there was a possibility of civilians around.  It was the first war in history where one side wasn't allowed to shoot first and sometimes couldn't even shoot back.  I wonder how many American lives were sacrificed for that.  Keep in mind that this is the guy they told us is a "genius."

Under Obama:
Afghan pedophiles get free pass from U.S. military, report says.  On 5,753 occasions from 2010 to 2016, the U.S. military reported accusations of "gross human rights abuses" by the Afghan military, including many examples of child sexual abuse.  If true, U.S. law required military aid to be cut off to the offending unit.  Not once did that happen.  That was among the findings in an investigation into child sexual abuse by the Afghan security forces and the supposed indifference of the U.S. military to the problem, according to a report released Monday by the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction, known as SIGAR.

Republicans Just Gotta Stop Clobbering Each Other Like the Three Stooges.  [T]he landscape really is so much better than it was just a few short years ago when Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House, and Harry Reid was Senate majority leader.  They passed Obamacare by cover of darkness, brazenly asserting that we — and they — would find out what's in the bill only after it passed.  They sabotaged and isolated Israel, propping the fantasy in Kerry-Obama's Security Council Resolution 2334 that a brand-new Arab terrorist country would get the Western Wall, stabbed Czechoslovakia and Poland in the backs by reneging on missile defense agreements to protect against Putin, allowed Iran and North Korea to grow nuclear programs, left our heroes exposed in Benghazi, initiated the disastrous "reset" with Putin that lost the Crimea and endangers the Ukraine, announced to the Taliban and ISIS in advance the dates by which we would withdraw from strategic promontories and abandon our positions to them.  Obama released from Gitmo five of the most brutal murderers in Arab Terrordom in exchange for Bowe Bergdahl, the deserter who his comical national security adviser joked had served with "honor and distinction." They actually endeavored to close down Gitmo.  We had a President who literally bowed to Arab sheiks and a Secretary of State who responded to Islamist Arab murders by swift-boating James Taylor to France to sing "You've Got a Friend."

CONFIRMED: Proof Found Obama Purposefully Let Cocaine Into US.  The mainstream media will continue to defend Barack Obama's legacy despite the constant misdeeds.  To them, 44 was a savior.  The truth?  He was had no clue what he was doing.

Obama's 'Echo Chamber' Strikes Back Over His Protected Drug Operation.  Politico's Josh Meyer wrote a bombshell investigative report this week alleging that Barack Obama ignored Hezbollah's criminal drug operations in the United States to secure the Iran deal.  [It is important to note that the U.S. is currently dealing with a severe drug crisis and in general, Obama released 95 cocaine dealers, not all Hezbollah of course.]

Terrorists Are Losing Big, And It's All Thanks To Our Military's Liberation From Obama-Era Policies.  The military is celebrating their return to excellence as they roll over ISIS like the terrorist group is merely trash in the street.  According to members of the military, this is all thanks to the unleashing of Mattis, and the removal of Obama-era policies that hampered them.  According to Fox News, the military's mishandling at the hands of the Obama administration allowed the world's public enemy number one to regroup after defeats, prolonging their existence and putting even more lives in danger.  "Hundreds of ISIS fighters had just been chased out of a northern Syrian city and were fleeing through the desert in long convoys, presenting an easy target to U.S.  A-10 "warthogs," said Fox News of an event that occurred in August of last year.  "But the orders to bomb the black-clad jihadists never came, and the terrorists melted into their caliphate — living to fight another day."

FBI Plot Against Trump.  This shouldn't be all that surprising given that Barack Obama gleefully weaponized the FBI, Department of Justice, and various intelligence agencies, and criminalized political differences in the process.  A radical zealot with a desire to fundamentally transform the United States, the 44th president had a limited sense of boundaries.  Obama was more Third World caudillo than president and he was never troubled by hijacking governmental powers to hurt his opposition, as the conservative groups targeted by his IRS can attest.  His race-obsessed first attorney general, Eric Holder, turned the Justice Department into a virtual arm of the Democratic Party, using the agency to punish the Left's enemies and let allies run wild.  His second attorney general, Loretta Lynch, surreptitiously met with Bill Clinton in an airport hangar, presumably to cut a shady deal to let Hillary Clinton escape punishment for the many crimes she committed in office.

An important position the President needs to fill, free of any Obama holdovers.  A quarter century ago the Voice of America was headed by Tucker Carlson's father, Richard Carlson.  And Dick was more than a veteran newsman.  He was a serious thinker who valued content.  Dick saw VOA as fair and objective, above politics, but he had a strategic objective of telling America's story, in a positive way.  All this was well before the Obama era, with President Obama's repudiation of American exceptionalism and his "apology tour" that seemed to define our international messaging.

Obama Rarely Prosecuted Criminals Who Sought To Buy Guns Illegally.  More than 100,000 convicted felons or other "prohibited persons" tried to buy guns each year during President Barack Obama's administration by lying on their applications, but the Justice Department only considered prosecuting about 30 to 40 people each year, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation.  The Obama administration may have publicly aligned itself with anti-gun activists, but it consistently turned a blind eye to prosecute known criminals who tried to buy guns.  A June 2016 Justice Department Inspector General's report revealed that between 2008 and 2015 the U.S. Attorneys office considered prosecuting "less than 32 people per year" for lying on form 4473, the federal application to buy guns.

There Is No Inner Party:  Obama Had His 18-Year-Old Daughter Intern for Harvey Weinstein.  You might think that the President would have heard about the true nature of his supporter Harvey Weinstein, but apparently he hadn't.

Obama blocked deportation of 550,000 illegals, more than Atlanta's population.  U.S. immigration officials have revealed that they face a deportation backlog of 550,000 illegal immigrants who were given temporary amnesty by former President Obama or simply let off the hook by liberal judges.  The massive backlog is being tackled by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but the sheer numbers — bigger than the populations of Atlanta or Sacramento — is overwhelming the agency's enforcement and removal department.

'Smoking gun' email reveals Obama DOJ blocked conservative groups from settlement funds, GOP lawmaker says.  The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee claims he obtained a "smoking gun" email that proves the Obama Justice Department prevented settlement payouts from going to conservative-leaning organizations, even as liberal groups were awarded money and DOJ officials denied "picking and choosing" recipients.  "It is not every day in congressional investigations that we find a smoking gun," Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said Tuesday [10/24/2017].  "Here, we have it."

There is no room on this web site for unsubstantiated rumors... LIKE THIS:
Obama's Darkest Secret Leaks To Public.  I have no idea if this is true or not, but author Ed Klein claims that Obama was, or still is, "popping gummy bears infused with cannibis." [...] Obama is a communist.  But he's also a hippie dippy liberal in many ways and he has an addictive personality.  He may have gone to the gummy bears to give up smoking and wanted that extra special side effect.  Wonder who makes them for him?  Just sayin'.  That's if this is even true.

A Hidden Scandal Worse Than Uranium One.  What could be worse than giving 20 percent of our uranium to Russia one might ask?  How about giving a 35-year lease to one of America's largest container ports, located just minutes from the Kennedy Space Center, to a Middle Eastern company with ties to Iran, North Korea, Russia and the evil genius behind Saddam Hussein's nuclear weapons program?  But that's exactly what the same players involved in the Uranium One deal did when they leased the cargo container operations at Port Canaveral, Florida after two years of secret talks with the Obama administration.  Now the Center for Security Policy's dogged and fearless team of Alan Jones and Mary Fanning have revealed exactly what could go wrong, with potentially catastrophic consequences for U.S. national security.

200,000 deportation cases quietly 'closed' under Obama.  During the Obama era up to 200,000 deportation cases were "administratively closed" without action, a move that left tens of thousands of illegal immigrants free to roam America, sometimes indefinitely, according to a new report.  When added to those cases still pending court action, it brings the backlog of cases to about 800,000, far more than previously known.  In the report for the Center for Immigration Studies, former immigration judge Andrew R. Arthur said that there are some 100,000 cases that were closed, but told [the Washington Examiner] that it could be as high as 200,000.

The problem with DACA was President Obama.  President Obama's governing by executive pen was wrong and rather cynical for a couple of reasons.  First, President Obama knew that his "pen" would eventually be broken by a court decision.  Second, President Obama had to know that he'd be leaving a bunch of "DREAMers" stranded whenever his order was reversed.  Obama's DACA was the political equivalent of giving someone a check and knowing that there are no funds in the bank to cover it.  Super-cynical, to say the least.  The executive order was President Obama reacting to the 2014 midterm elections and hoping to energize Hispanics behind a Clinton candidacy.

American Soldiers Died In Niger Because Of Obama.  Congresswoman Frederica Wilson has come up with a new gimmick for getting invited on CNN.  After exploiting the death of one soldier killed in an attack in Niger, she decided that if exploiting one soldier made her famous, exploiting the deaths of all the soldiers would make her even more famous.  Wilson has taken to calling the attack, "Mr. Trump's Benghazi."  And she's close.  American soldiers died in Niger for the same reasons that Americans died in Benghazi.  Both were fallout from the Arab Spring.  It wasn't President Trump who deployed our soldiers to Niger.  That was Obama's doing.  Congresswoman Wilson complained that they, "didn't have appropriate weapons where they were" and that "they had trucks that were not armored trucks."  She is welcome to take up those objections with Obama.

Retired Reporter Details Obama's Off-the-Record 'Profanity-Laced Tirade' About the Media.  President Obama once delivered a "profanity-laced tirade" in an off-the-record session with reporters when he wasn't happy about media coverage, according to retired ABC News correspondent Ann Compton.

Who Is Keeping Score On Obama's Failed Pardons?  As expected, the black beneficiaries of Obama's mass pardon/commutations are already returning to whence they came.  As reported by myself and others over the last few years [...], Obama commuted the sentences of a whopping 1715 federal inmates and outright pardoned another 212.  These pardons were heavily weighted to black drug offenders.  The reason he gave was a belief that the justice system was rigged against his fellow African-Americans.  It seems that Carole Denise Richardson[,] one of his fellows who needed a second chance, is back in custody for theft and according to authorities, "Richardson violated five separate terms of her release including failing to report that she was arrested, that she'd been terminated from a job for failing to show up and that she had changed her address."

The 15 Most Insane Obama Pardons.  The temper tantrums on the left over the well-deserved pardon of 85-year old ex-Sheriff Joe Arpaio (convicted on a misdemeanor charge of contempt) deserves some context.  Over the course of eight years, Barack Obama pardoned scores of hard-core offenders.

Apocalyptic Progressivism.  During the 2008 campaign, gas prices at one point averaged over $4 a gallon.  Then-candidate Obama reacted by pushing a green agenda — as if the cash-strapped but skeptical public could be pushed into alternative energy agendas.  Obama mocked then-Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's prescient advice to "drill, baby, drill" — as if Palin's endorsement of new technologies such as fracking and horizontal drilling could never ensure consumers plentiful fuel.  Instead, in September 2008, Steven Chu, who would go on to become Obama's secretary of energy, told the Wall Street Journal that, "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe."

Obama administration 'knowingly allowed at least 16 members of notorious teen gang MS-13 into the US'.  The Obama administration allowed at least 16 teenage foreigners into the United States even though it knew they were members of the so-called 'MS-13' gang, according to a Republican senator.  Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin who heads the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said internal documents showed that the teenagers were sent to juvenile homes across the US, The Washington Times reported on Wednesday [5/24/2017].

How Obama's 'smart power' helped seed the Manchester attack.  South Manchester is home to one of the world's largest Libyan expatriate communities, which in recent years has become a prime recruiting ground for young jihadists.  And Libya itself is the base for an ISIS external-operations wing tasked with plotting terrorist attacks in Europe.  Indeed, since the fall of Moammar Khadafy, Libya has become a haven for Islamist terrorist groups.  Such is the result of Barack Obama's failed policy — which he so confidently announced would prove smarter than his predecessor's mistakes in Iraq, only to be proved horribly wrong.

Report:  Obama In Hiding After Former Secret Service Agent Outs Him in Wiretapping Claim.  Ever since Trump became president, Obama has been behind the scenes doing everything he can to cause massive chaos.  But setting up a shadow government and training his violent minions to take out Trump through his group Organization For Action (OFA) has just been the beginning of Obama's subversion tactics.  Over the weekend, we've learned that Obama secretly tapped Trump's phone throughout the 2016 presidential election in order to spy.  But unfortunately for Obama, his antics are about to blow up in a huge way after his former Secret Service agent just came forward with a huge bombshell, sure to tighten the screws even more on Obama's self-inflicted scandal.

Repudiating the Obama Vision for Higher Education.  In 2012, there was a White House forum to discuss the remaking of our institutions of higher learning.  The forum was based on a 136 page volume A Crucible Moment:  College Learning and Democracy's Future by The National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement.  The National Task Force was composed of 11 individuals.  The writers or supervisors of the writing were these eleven individuals, so we shall never know who is responsible for which section of the report.  The writing of books by committee is another sign to this writer of the dilution of individual responsibility as well as individual rights.  It is a collective manuscript.  And if you ask teachers in our schools, they will tell you that increasingly textbooks are "written" by a large committee of scholars.  This report reflects this trend.  However, chief spokesman for this report at the 2012 White House Forum was Carol G. Schneider, then President of the American Association of College and University Professors.  This report should send a chill up the spines of every citizen in the United States.  Why?  It represented nothing less than an attempt to turn institutions of learning away from preparing students for careers and professional employment and away from the unbiased search for truth, which presumably is a scientific and philosophical goal in our colleges.  According to the vision of this report, institutions of higher education should be engaged in community development and promoting engagement.  It is a "social justice" model, a progressive model.  Universities should fill in gaps where existing institutions have failed communities.

Man freed early from life sentence by Obama back in jail.  A San Antonio man who was freed from life in prison by President Barack Obama is back behind bars after allegedly crashing his vehicle into another motorist and undercover police cars while fleeing from a drug deal Thursday [2/2/2017].  Robert M. Gill, 68, whose life sentence for cocaine and heroin distribution conspiracy was commuted by Obama and expired in 2015, was profiled last year in the Express-News about his readjustment to life on the outside.

Man freed early from life sentence by Obama back in jail.  A San Antonio man who was freed from life in prison by President Barack Obama is back behind bars after allegedly crashing his vehicle into another motorist and undercover police cars while fleeing from a drug deal Thursday [2/2/2017].

Leftists Triggered Over Kellyanne Conway Putting Her Feet on a Couch.  Fresh off their collective hissy fit over Donald Trump putting ketchup on his steak, anti-Trump leftists have now been triggered by pictures that show Kellyanne Conway putting her feet on a couch in the Oval Office. [...] Journalists chose to make the entire story about where Conway put her feet rather than talk about Trump's meeting with leaders of black universities and colleges.

By Commuting Bradley Manning's Sentence, Obama Broke Faith with the Military.  In essence, soldiers make two simple pledges:  I will obey lawful orders, and I will lay down my life for the mission and my brothers and sisters.  Good commanders know that soldiers trust them to reinforce the warrior ethos with effective discipline.  Soldiers who can't be trusted can't be coddled; violating orders, acting selfishly, or disregarding the mission can ultimately break units and armies.

Why Did Obama Free This Terrorist?  On January 17, 2017, as one of the final acts of his presidency, Barack Obama commuted the sentence of 74-year-old Oscar Lopez Rivera, the Puerto Rican nationalist who had served 35 years of a 55-year conviction for the crime of "seditious conspiracy," as well as attempted robbery, explosives and vehicle-theft charges.  Thanks to Obama's intercession, Lopez will be freed in May.

"Kill Christians": The Real Refugee Protest Agenda.  The President of the United States announced that refugees fleeing persecution by a totalitarian regime would be deported.  It did not matter that they had risked their lives to come here.  They would be sent back.  No leftist lawyers crammed airports.  No protesters chanted at terminals.  No celebrities offered sanctimonious lectures about "who we are".  No one dared to call the lying thug behind it un-American.  Because his last name was Obama and the refugees were Cubans fleeing socialism.

Obama Commutes Life Sentences of Four Mexican Cartel Leaders.  Four family members who ran one of the largest cartel smuggling operations in south Texas had their life in prison sentences commuted and will likely be returning to this border city from where they ran their criminal empire.  One of the main destinations that the criminal organizations delivered drugs to was Chicago, Illinois.  This week, outgoing President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of 209 convicted criminals and pardoned 64 others.  The majority of the convictions were from drug trafficking or production offenses.

Obama denies clemency for Leonard Peltier, nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee.  Among those denied clemency in Obama's final days, according to the Justice Department:
  •   Wen Ho Lee, the University of California physicist accused — and then largely exonerated — of leaking nuclear secrets to the Chinese in 1999.
  •   Former Alabama governor Don Siegelman, who is serving a seven-year sentence for corruption.
  •   Leonard Peltier, the American Indian activist convicted of killing two FBI agents in 1975.
Neither the White House nor the Justice Department discusses reasons for denying a pardon as a matter of "well-established policy."  But Lee's denial was all the more noteworthy given that Obama granted clemency in two other cases involving national security secrets the day before.

ICE Criminal Prosecutions Plummeted In Obama's Second Term.  Criminal prosecutions resulting from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigations plummeted the last five years of Barack Obama's presidency.  The number of new ICE prosecutions dropped from a high of 21,662 in 2011 to 12,761 in 2016, according to data Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) released Monday [1/23/2017].

Obama commutes 330 drug sentences on his last full day as president.  In a last major act as president, Barack Obama cut short the sentences of 330 federal inmates convicted of drug crimes on Thursday [1/19/2017], bringing his bid to correct what he's called a systematic injustice to a climactic close.  With his final offer of clemency, Obama brought his total number of commutations granted to 1,715, more than any other president in U.S. history, the White House said.  During his presidency Obama ordered free 568 inmates who had been sentenced to life in prison.  'He wanted to do it.  He wanted the opportunity to look at as many as he could to provide relief,' Neil Eggleston, Obama's White House counsel, said in an interview in his West Wing office.

In final act as president, Obama commutes 330 drug sentences.  In a last major act as president, Barack Obama cut short the sentences of 330 federal inmates convicted of drug crimes on Thursday [1/19/2017], bringing his bid to correct what he's called a systematic injustice to a climactic close.

Obama Shows His True Colors as He Leaves Office.  Commuting the sentence of Chelsea Manning, one of the great traitors of our time, is finger-in-the-eye willfulness.  Obama took 28 years off the sentence of a soldier who stole and then released through WikiLeaks almost half a million military reports plus another quarter-million State Department documents.  The cables were embarrassing; the military secrets were almost certainly deadly.  They jeopardized the lives not just of American soldiers on two active fronts — Iraq and Afghanistan — but of locals who were, at great peril, secretly aiding and abetting us.  After Manning's documents release, the Taliban "went on a killing spree" (according to intelligence sources quoted by Fox News) of those who fit the description of individuals working with the United States.

Obama grants 330 commutations on last full day in office.  President Obama on Thursday [1/19/2017] granted 330 commutations to federal prisoners, less than 24 hours before his predecessor takes the oath of office.  All were serving drug sentences.  Obama's last major act as president brings his total number of commutations granted to 1,715, including 568 life sentences.  According to the White House, Thursday's [1/19/2017] batch of commutations is the most issued by any U.S. president in a single day.  "The president set[elsew]out to reinvigorate clemency, and he has done just that," White House Counsel Neil Eggleston said Thursday.

Obama decision to free FALN terror group leader sparks outrage.  He was convicted of trying to overthrow the government, and named a leader of a terrorist group that bombed public buildings and killed people.  Now, President Obama's decision to commute the sentence of FALN member Oscar Lopez Rivera has sparked outrage from terror victims.  "I'm disgusted by what the president did.  It's a travesty," said Joe Connor, whose father was killed in an infamous FALN terrorist bombing in Manhattan.  "The enemies of our country are being rewarded, and being treated as if they are heroes.  What we hear is that Oscar Lopez Rivera did not get to know his family.  Well, neither did my father.  The victims and the Americans get pushed aside."

White House says Obama's release of Manning serves 'justice'.  The White House said Wednesday [1/18/2017] that President Obama granted clemency for transgender military secrets leaker Chelsea Manning "in pursuit of justice," and accused congressional Republicans of hypocrisy for criticizing the commutation.  "Chelsea Manning was convicted of serious crimes," said White House press secretary Josh Earnest.  "She also took responsibility for those crimes.  She expressed remorse for those crimes."  He said Manning's 35-year prison term was "much longer than the sentence that was handed down to people who committed similar crimes that got much less attention."

Obama's Shameful Legacy.  There was a time, early in Barack Obama's presidency, when it was considered outrageous to worry out loud that the new president might treat enemies better than allies, run down friends and elevate foes, show solidarity with anti-American leaders, maybe even release dangerous terrorists or sympathize with traitors.  And here we are.  Obama has accommodated leaders hostile to America, like Vladimir Putin in Russia and Bashar al-Assad in Syria.  He strengthened a rogue regime in Iran and boosted despotic leaders in Cuba.

Mike Pence slams Obama's decision to free Chelsea Manning as a 'mistake' because she is a 'traitor who shouldn't be turned into a martyr'.  Vice President-elect Mike Pence says Barack Obama's decision to commute former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning's prison sentence 'was a mistake'.  Obama said on Wednesday [1/18/2017] that he commuted Manning's 35-year prison sentence for releasing classified military documents to Wikileaks because the punishment didn't fit the crime.

Hope & Change Comes Eight Years Into the Obama Presidency.  Army private [Bradley Manning] endangered the lives of more than 900 Afghans by releasing raw intelligence material.  But he at least showed the decency of leaving the electronic conversations of John Podesta and Donna Brazile out of it.  If only Julian Assange changed his name to Julia and focused on imperiling national security instead of Democratic Party job security, then he might have avoided the wrath of the Obama administration.  "So, with respect to WikiLeaks, I don't see a contradiction," the president told the press this week.

The Damage Done to America by Manning ... and Obama.  [Scroll down]  First, it is also disgraceful for the New York Times to report without balance that "Prosecutors ... presented no evidence that anyone was killed because of [Manning's] leaks."  As the Times well knows, in cases involving classified information, the government frequently cannot reveal — let alone prosecute — the damage done.  As a practical matter, such revelations end up disclosing more classified information and, critically, identifying other informants and countries who have covertly provided national-security assistance to the United States.  That is why it is always a gimmee for apologists of the Mannings, Snowdens, and Clintons to minimize the harm they have done; it is generally impossible to provide concrete information to counter this claim absent exposing more intelligence and endangering sources for obtaining it.

A man who thinks he's a girl.  THAT'S nuts.
In Manning clemency call, Obama sought to reduce sentence viewed as 'nuts'.  From the moment a military judge handed down a 35-year prison term for Chelsea Manning in 2013, President Obama and some administration officials saw the sentence as excessive.  "Nuts," said one person close to Obama.  They said Manning, an Army private charged with disclosing troves of secret files to WikiLeaks, should be punished for her crime.  But while Obama, a former law professor, was known for his tough stance on government leakers, he had also advocated for changing America's often harsh, inconsistent sentencing practices.  Long before Manning's attorneys submitted a second clemency request in November, Obama had considered the notion of "proportionate sentences" in evaluating the soldier's case, as he had in decisions to grant clemency to more than 1,300 drug offenders.

Obama Tarnishes His Legacy By Letting A Terrorist Walk Free.  We all know about President Obama's commutation of the 35-year sentence of traitor Chelsea Manning, nee Bradley, who handed U.S. secrets over to WikiLeaks, leading to the deaths of an untold number of people.  That was bad enough.  But even worse, but sadly less publicized, was Obama's decision to pardon Oscar Lopez Rivera, the terrorist whose FALN planted more than 130 bombs across America during the 1970s and 1980s, supposedly on behalf of Puerto Rican independence.  Lopez Rivera was sentenced to 55 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and a number of weapons charges.  He's served 35 years of that original sentence.

Why liberals just love to set terrorists free.  What is it about progressives like President Obama — and even pretend progressives like Gov. Andrew Cuomo — that makes them so forgiving of terrorists?  Obama, on his way out the door, Tuesday [1/17/2017] commuted the effective life sentence of Puerto Rican nationalist-terrorist Oscar Lopez Rivera — an architect of the wave of terror that led to the murder-by-bombing of four at Fraunces Tavern in Lower Manhattan in 1975.  Cuomo, for no apparent reason other than to plant a wet one on Black Lives Matter, last month gave an early out to one-time Weather Underground conspirator Judith Clark — convicted of murdering two cops and a security guard during the infamous Brinks armored car robbery in Rockland County in 1981.

Obama Wastes Another $500 Million for UN Climate Fund.  Of course, this money will go to dictators and bad guys in many areas.  Well, the money that makes it out of the hands of the United Nations, which doesn't exactly have a great track record of competence and fiscal responsibility.  And, what money makes it beyond the greedy hands of  3rd world  developing nation leaders, will be position as being from the UN, rather than the United States.  Obama's just throwing money that taxpayers earned with hard work away, and all for nothing.

Obama commutes 55-year sentence of controversial mastermind of '70s Puerto Rican terror group.  The last imprisoned member of the Puerto Rican independence group that terrorized New York in the 1970s will be a free man in May — 20 years ahead of schedule.  President Obama granted a commutation Tuesday to FALN mastermind Oscar López Rivera, who's served 35 years of his 55-year sentence.  During the 1970s and 80s, López Rivera was part of FALN, or Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional, a group seeking to liberate Puerto Rico from U.S. control.

Freeing Private Manning.  Shocking is the only word for President Obama's decision to release Private Manning from prison after serving but six of the 35 years to which the disgraced soldier had been sentenced by a military court.  We understand that it is fully within the President's constitutional power.  And that the private's circumstances — as a transgender soldier being held largely in solitary at a prison for men — must be exceptionally excruciating.  Yet what kind of signal does this commutation send when we are still in the middle of a war in which thousands of our GIs are in harm's way?

Obama's appalling message to traitors and how critics say reducing Chelsea Manning's sentence may be one of the most serious misjudgments of his presidency.  As pundits spend the last hours of Barack Obama's presidency totting up all the bold pledges he failed to carry out in office, the White House finally had what it regarded as some good news to boast about.  He has now granted more commutations of prison sentences than any president in the nation's history.  In fact, Mr Obama has commuted the sentences of 1,385 convicted criminals — including 504 serving life sentences — which is more than the total number issued by the previous 12 presidents combined.

Obama pardons Cartwright, source of Stuxnet virus leak.  US President Barack Obama pardoned 64 people and commuted sentences for an additional 209 on Wednesday [1/18/2017], among them retired Marine Corps four star general James Cartwright, the alleged source of leaked information to the press detailing a cyber attack on Iran's nuclear facilities in 2010.

Obama Frees Chelsea Manning and 273 More Criminals.  President Barack Obama announced his plan to free Chelsea Manning (who changed his name from Bradley) after leaking classified military documents to Wikileaks and being sentenced to 35 years in prison for his crimes.  Once in prison, Manning went on a hunger strike to demand sex change surgery in prison, which was granted by officials at the cost of American taxpayers.  Obama included Manning on a list of prisoner commutations announced late Tuesday afternoon, allowing him to be set free on May 17, 2017.

Obama Has No Time Left for Medal of Honor to Decorated Vietnam War Medic.  Outgoing President Barack Obama appears not to have the time to bestow the military's highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor, to former U.S. Army Spc.  Jim McCloughan, 70, for his personal acts above and beyond the call of duty as a medic during the Vietnam War.  The warrior has been waiting for five decades to be recognized for saving 10 people in May 1969, despite having some grenade shrapnel and a bullet wound in his arm, during a gruesome battle of the Vietnam War that left scores of service members killed, wounded, or missing in action.

Obama to Free Chelsea Manning.  For the past month, Democrats have screamed about the danger of WikiLeaks and Russian hackers.  But when it comes to a guy who damaged US military and intelligence assets instead of the DNC, Obama has decided even massive leaks are unimportant.

Jake Tapper:  Manning Commutation 'Contradicts the Last Eight Years' of White House on Leakers.  CNN's Jake Tapper reacted to President Obama's commutation of Chelsea Manning's sentence by pointing out how the White House has felt about Manning, WikiLeaks, and leakers in general in the past eight years.  Bill Kristol called this "great news for Donald Trump" to start off, because it shifts focus away from him versus the intel community.  Tapper pointed out that Obama has used the Espionage Act to go after leakers a great deal more so than presidents past, and now for him to commute the sentence of "one of the most notorious leakers... certainly contradicts the last eight years of policy in terms of leaking."

Barack Obama transfers $500m to Green Climate Fund in attempt to protect Paris deal.  Barack Obama has heeded calls to help secure the future of the historic Paris agreement by transferring a second $500m instalment to the Green Climate Fund, just three days before he leaves office.  The fund was a key aspect of the Paris agreement signed in 2015, which aims to keep global warming "well below" 2[°]C and aspires to keep warming to 1.5[°]C.  Established in 2010, it is financed by wealthy countries and used to assist developing countries with adaptation and mitigation.  It was widely seen as a key measure to bring both rich and poor countries to the negotiating table.  The US committed to transferring $3bn to the fund.  The new instalment leaves $2bn owing, with the incoming president, Donald Trump, expected to cease any further payments.

CNN Reporter:  Obama Is Freeing Chelsea Manning Because She's Transitioning.  CNN reporter Jeff Zeleny argued on Tuesday that President Obama commuted Chelsea Manning's prison sentence because the former Army private is transitioning from a man to a woman.  "I think the question this president and the White House will have to answer here, will answer, and I think it's an important one, how much was the personal story of Chelsea Manning involved in this," Zeleny said in a panel discussion of the White House decision.  Manning, who was formerly known as "Bradley," was sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2013 on espionage charges for stealing nearly one million classified documents and leaking them to WikiLeaks.

Respect For The Oval Office:  Did Obama Have Any?  With one week to go before Obama leaves office, take a look at the photos I've gathered over the years of Obama.  Respect for the Oval Office?  It's is clear from these pics that he didn't have any.  Keep in mind, these are not AP photos, these are not photos from Fox News, these were posted on the White House website and the White House Flickr page, sometimes called official WH photos.

Obama Commutes Almost All of Chelsea Manning's Sentence.  President Obama on Tuesday commuted the bulk of Chelsea Manning's 35-year prison sentence, which she received for providing classified information to WikiLeaks in 2010 pertaining to details of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Manning was found guilty in 2013 and her sentence was originally set to end on May 17, 2045.  Now it will end in May of this year, taking 28 years off the conviction. [...] Manning, a transgender woman whose first name was Bradley at the time, was a low-level intelligence analyst in the Army deployed to Iraq when she copied 750,000 pages of military documents and videos.

Outgoing Obama has granted more commutations than the past 12 Presidents combined.  Barack Obama has commuted the sentences of an additional 209 people yesterday — meaning the incumbent President has granted more commutations than the previous 12 Presidents combined.  With less than 72 hours left in the Oval Office, Obama announced 209 commutations and 64 pardons in an unprecedented decision as he prepares to step down as President.  He has now commuted the sentences of 1,385 people, including 504 life terms — more than any President in US history.

Obama adds Alabama civil rights area to Park Service.  President Barack Obama signed an order Thursday [1/12/2017] designating an historic civil rights district in Alabama as a national monument, placing several blocks of a city once rocked by racial violence on par with landmarks including the Grand Canyon.

Joe Biden Is No Bipartisan Role Model.  The fact that Biden received the [U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom] is problematic enough — the honor must mean little if it can be given to one's vice president for no particular reason — but the reaction to the award was particularly telling.  Liberals and conservatives alike took to Twitter to praise Biden for a long career of service to America, for rising above partisan politics, for showing us that there is reason to laugh amidst tragedy. [...] But in fact, Biden's career serves as a neat summary for much of the ruthlessness that Americans hate about our government, and he has managed to use his gaffe-prone nature to disguise his record of intense, bitterly partisan politicking.  This trick was perhaps never more evident than in his egregious treatment of Reagan Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork — whom he successfully prevented from reaching the Court — and his similar but failed effort to prevent Clarence Thomas's confirmation.  Biden treated these two men disgracefully and in doing so played a crucial role in distorting our judicial-confirmation process so severely that it will likely never recover.

Obama surprises Biden with Presidential Medal of Freedom.  Vice President Joe Biden broke down in tears as President Obama surprised "my brother" with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country's highest civilian honor, during a White House ceremony Thursday [1/12/2017].

Violence in the Halls, Disorder in the Malls.  If Donald Trump wants to make schools safe again, he must rescind the Obama administration's diktats regarding classroom discipline, which are based on a fantasy version of reality that is having serious real-world consequences.  The Obama Justice and Education Departments have strong-armed schools across the country to all but eliminate the suspension and expulsion of insubordinate students.  The reason?  Because black students are disciplined at higher rates than whites.  According to Washington bureaucrats, such disproportionate suspensions can mean only one thing:  teachers and administrators are racist.  The Obama administration rejects the proposition that black students are more likely to assault teachers or fight with other students in class.

Whatever happened to that smooth transition Obama vowed?  "You better stop stealing money from your mother's purse, young man, or I will punish you late this year or perhaps sometime in 2018," said no parent who was serious about punishment.  Yet that's pretty much what President Obama did with his old-fashioned expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats over alleged political hacking by Moscow interests going back 18 months.  A very strange retro-response from a president who mocked Mitt Romney for suggesting in 2012 that Russia was America's worst strategic threat.  Obama said:  "The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the Cold War's been over for 20 years."  As has often happened when Obama shoots from the lip sans teleprompter (think his red line in Syria, ISIS is a JV squad), the aloof one is wrong.

President Obama Awards Himself With Distinguished Public Service Medal.  This is just sad.  Obama was so desperate to feel important, despite the fact that most of the world hates him, that on Wednesday he added another prestigious medal to his Nobel Prize collection.  Obama asked Defense Secretary Ash Carter to award him with the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service.  Secretary Carter awarded his boss with the medal January 4th during the Armed Forces Honor Farewell Review for the President held in Virginia.  The press reported that Carter insisted that the medal was a token of appreciation for Obama's service as commander in chief.

Just how far is Obama willing to go for this farce?  Funny, isn't it?  Barack Obama won't lift a finger when America is actually threatened.  But to maintain this farce that Donald Trump's victory in November was orchestrated by Russia and not the fault of the Democrats running an out-of-touch crook, Obama is willing to create an international incident.

Obama's full-blown, year-end temper tantrum.  Let's be honest:  President Obama is throwing a good old-fashioned foot-stomping world class temper tantrum.  He is just beside himself that the stupid American voter elected Donald Trump. [...] He also knows what is best for Israelis.  Upending long-standing tradition, he has allowed our only true ally — and the only democracy — in the Middle East to be further isolated and compromised, in the interests, we are told, of seeking a meaningful peace.  The reality is that Obama fully expected that by dint of his winning personality, superior insight and sympathy for the Muslim people, to conquer the divides in that region.  He was shocked that his Cairo speech did not cause the waters to part, and the wounds to heal.  And he is angry that, in his mind, Bibi Netanyahu has stood between him and fulfilling this key legacy achievement.

US kicks out dozens of Russian diplomats over election hacking.  President Obama booted 35 Russian spies Thursday and shuttered a massive Long Island compound owned by Moscow in retaliation for interfering with the 2016 election.  "All Americans should be alarmed by Russia's actions," Obama said while on vacation in Hawaii.  "Such activities have consequences."  The State Department declared each unidentified intelligence operative "persona non grata" and ordered them out of the US within 72 hours.  Obama also imposed sanctions on six Russians back in the motherland, including four spy-agency officials.

US expels 35 Russian diplomats, closes 2 compounds.  Thirty-five Russian diplomats have been expelled from the US, according to a statement from State Department.  President Obama described those expelled as "intelligence operatives," also announcing the closure of two Russian compounds, in New York and Maryland.  The Russian diplomats would be given 72 hours to leave US soil.  They are expelled for acting in a "manner inconsistent with their diplomatic status," the statement reads.

Obama orders sanctions against Russia, expels operatives, in response to hacking.  President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday "it's time for our country to move on to bigger and better things" after the Obama administration issued sanctions against Russia for its alleged 2016 election hacking.  "It's time for our country to move on to bigger and better things," Trump said in a written response released four hours after the announcement.  "Nevertheless, in the interest of our country and its great people, I will meet with leaders of the intelligence community next week in order to be updated on the facts of this situation."

US issues more sanctions on Russia over alleged election hacking.  President Barack Obama has issued new sanctions against Russian people and companies that the US government has accused of hacking American institutions ahead of the election.  The Treasury Department announced the new sanctions against five entities and four individuals on Thursday afternoon [12/29/2016].  In the executive order, which Obama signed Wednesday night, the president said he was taking "additional steps to deal with the national emergency with respect to significant malicious cyber-enabled activities... in view of the increasing use of such activities to undermine democratic processes or institutions."

NBC: Obama Told Putin Election Hacking Could Result in 'Armed Conflict'.  President Barack Obama reportedly told Russian President Vladimir Putin in October that directly interfering with the U.S. election could result in an "armed conflict."  According to NBC News, Obama opted to use the red phone to contact Moscow directly, a communication system that dates back to the Cold War.  It's not an actual telephone, but instead sends a secure email message between the two countries.  "International law, including the law for armed conflict, applies to actions in cyberspace," part of the Oct. 31 message read, according to NBC.  "We will hold Russia to those standards."

What Obama is doing now may be his most heinous and nefarious act yet.  What we're witnessing in America is beyond belief, as if Roman Emperor Nero has been reincarnated in President Barack Hussein Obama.  In his dwindling days, Nero began to demonstrate certain instability, and as story tells it, he famously fiddled while Rome burned.  Some have written that Nero ordered the fires to be started himself.  And in these final days [...] of the Obama administration, we find the disturbing and disconcerting actions of one who is starting fires while he plays golf.  There's no logical explanation to the deeds being done by Obama in these final days. [...] And to have Obama craft language, abstain from a vote, and allow such an anti-Israel resolution to pass through the U.N. Security Council is inexplicable, other than seeking to usher in the demise of a recognized nation-state.

Seven Ways Obama Is Trying to Sabotage the Trump Administration.  President Barack Obama's final weeks in office seem dedicated to setting foreign and domestic policy on fire to make life as difficult as possible on his successor, Donald Trump.  Here are some of the biggest mousetraps Obama scattered across the White House floor on his way out: [...]

Obama dumps registry for some immigrant men, mostly Muslims.  The Obama administration said Thursday [12/22/2016] it is officially scrapping a post-9/11 requirement for immigrant men from predominantly Muslim countries to register with the federal government.

Obama names cop-killer fan to civil rights commission.  Barack Obama's stealth appointment of Debo P. Adegbile as a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is a last-minute slap in the face to police by a president who has already spent eight years demonizing cops and encouraging violent agitators to lash out at law enforcement.  Because Adegbile cannot be removed from the Commission for six years except for "neglect of duty or malfeasance in office," the slap is intended to leave its mark long after Obama has left office.

That Would Make Them Scream.  I suggest that Congress either repeal the legislation creating this commission, or simply refuse to fund it at all.  If such a commission is viewed as being necessary for some reason, a "repeal and replace" strategy could be employed.  I'm sure President Trump would go along with that.

President Obama Has Given 657 Commutations To Cocaine Dealers Since August.  President Barack Obama has commuted the sentences of 657 cocaine dealers since Aug. 3, a Daily Caller analysis reveals.  That represents nearly 80 percent of the commutations the president has given since August.  Commutations are a form of clemency, which reduces the sentences of federal prisoners.  President Obama has given more commutations then the past 11 presidents combined, and The New York Times reports he plans to give more before his final day in office.

Pat Caddell: 'Grace, That's What's Missing' as Obamas Prepare to Leave White House.  Political pollster and analyst Pat Caddell told Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Monday [12/19/2016] that, concerning the Obamas leaving the White House, "We are watching this ending here.  It's not quite as bad as the Clintons ... but the lack of grace, that's what's missing here." [...] Additionally, pointing out that, post-election, no one in major media was fired or demoted for getting the election so wrong.  "None of them have been fired.  Are you kidding?" he said.  "The pollsters who are bad," he continued, "what are they doing?  They're back with new polls this week."

Obama's 'safe space' hypocrisy.  Obama has transformed the White House into one of the most luxurious, and powerful, safe spaces in the world.  No, Obama doesn't turn to coloring books or therapy dogs when Republicans object to his policies or when the media point out the economy's lackluster recovery.  But he has repeatedly exercised an unwillingness to even acknowledge his opponent's positions beyond a vulgar caricature.

Gun Control President Reduces More Sentences For Violent Felons Convicted Of Gun Crimes.  This week President Obama defended his record of most pardons/commutations of any president in the modern era by issuing 231 pardons and commutations.  Forty-nine of these offenders were convicted on charges of felony use or possession of firearms.

U.S. Returns Largest Tract of Okinawa Land to Japan in 44 Years.  The U.S. military announced the return to the Japanese government of the largest tract of land in more than 40 years, reducing American-administered areas on the southern island of Okinawa by 17 percent.  Japan has made "sufficient progress" in the construction of helipads and roads in the area that were a condition of the return, U.S. Forces Japan said in a statement.  Staging sit-down protests, local people had delayed the construction of the new facilities in an area that is home to endangered plants and animals.

On Skipping Intelligence Briefings.  Mr. Obama is criticizing Donald Trump for missing some daily intelligence briefings (a criticism which we find valid, by the way), and saying that a president is "flying blind" without those briefings.  But why [...] didn't anyone say that to Obama for the last 8 years?!  Some reports say that Barry skipped as many as two thirds of his intelligence briefings, including the one the morning after the Benghazi debacle.

Washington Post Suddenly Concerned About A Divisive Tone From The President.  [W]here was the concern over the last almost 8 years over Obama's divisiveness?  Obama consistently picked fights with Congressional Republicans, using language that not only smeared and insulted them, but did the same to Citizens who vote Republican.  He's insulted directly or had his surrogates insult numerous citizens and groups.  He's insulted the Supreme Court.  He's called American's lazy more than once, and done it while overseas.  He's called us soft (though, let's be honest, people who vote Democrat very much seem to be soft).  He called one police department stupid.  He's called others racist.  Insults to those who opposed Obamacare.  The NRA and those who support it.  Gun owners in general.  He's attacked private citizens and groups both domestic and abroad.  He's insulted other countries.

Report: Obama Ignored Russian Hacking Because He Thought Hillary Was Going To Win.  The Obama administration refused to act aggressively against Russian hackers during the election because they believed that Hillary Clinton was going to win the White House, sources are telling NBC News.  "They thought she was going to win, so they were willing to kick the can down the road," a U.S. official with knowledge of the scope of the hacking told NBC.

Obama's Disastrous Syria Policy.  While the administration has managed to learn a few lessons — it reversed course enough to save Iraq and put ISIS into retreat there — the reality is that some errors are irreversible.  Russia and its allies have won victories in Syria that would be nearly impossible to roll back without courting a showdown among great powers.  President Trump will come into office facing an unfavorable strategic situation with few good options.

Bill Murray Golfs with Obama in Oval Office to Promote Obamacare.  The White House has enlisted veteran actor Bill Murray to get the word out during the final days of open enrollment to receive health insurance next year under the Affordable Care Act.  In a video tweeted by the official White House account Sunday evening, Murray and President Obama take turns putting into a glass in the Oval Office as the president reminds viewers that open enrollment for the health care exchanges ends on December 15.

Obama plays golf in the Oval Office to shoot a video promoting the Affordable Care Act.  Actor Bill Murray gave President Barack Obama a run for his money as they faced off by putting a golf ball into a glass in a video promoting the Affordable Care Act.  The President, known for being a White Sox fan, jokingly told Murray:  'Generally, I don't let Cubs fans into the Oval Office,' as the two took turns putting a golf ball into a glass cup.  The two exchanged good-natured barbs before Murray complained about his knee, giving the president an opportunity to urge him to sign up for insurance coverage.

Military plane circling Manhattan causes panic as authorities 'forget to issue alerts put in place after 9/11'.  A military plane circling around Manhattan caused panic and confusion for some New Yorkers on Tuesday [12/13/2016] as they tried to work out why the aircraft was flying so low.  The C-130 aircraft, which was spotted flying low around midtown Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon [12/13/2016], was taking part in a routine military training exercise.  The Federal Aviation Administration said the U.S. military was cleared to carry out the flights over the city.  Two other helicopters were also spotted flying low.

Obama appoints Mumia Abu-Jamal's attorney to Civil Rights Commission.  In a move sure to fray his relations with law enforcement, President Obama on Thursday [12/15/2016] appointed Debo Adegbile, a former attorney for convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, to a six-year post on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.  Mr. Adegbile worked at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund when he represented Abu-Jamal in the appeal of his conviction and death sentence for the notorious 1981 shooting death of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.  Abu-Jamal's sentence was reduced to life in prison.  The case prompted the Senate to reject Mr. Adegbile's nomination in 2014 when Mr. Obama appointed him to lead the Justice Department's office on civil rights.  Some Democrats joined Republicans in voting down the selection at that time.

Obama is set to ram through last-minute 'midnight regulations' to secure his legacy.  Barack Obama is set to ram through last-minute law changes to try and cement his legacy, according to reports.  'Midnight regulations' are those introduced between November's election and January's inauguration of a new president.  It is a last chance for an outgoing Commander-in-chief to put his stamp on the presidency and tie the hands of his successor.

Will Obama pardon Clinton and cement his legacy?  Would Obama give his former secretary of state a preemptory get-out-of-jail card before he leaves office and turns the White House over to Donald Trump? [...] Of course, this is speculation.  Mrs. Clinton hasn't been charged with any crime.  But lack of charges didn't stop Republican President Gerald Ford from giving immunity to former Republican President Richard Nixon.

US returning land to Japan it's controlled since World War II.  The US military this month will return to Japan's government more than 9,800 acres of land it has held since World War II, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said Tuesday [12/6/2016].  The 9,852 acres of land on the island of Okinawa, part of a territory officially referred to as the Northern Training Area, is in a large US military base complex on the Pacific island more than 960 miles (1,550 kilometers) southwest of Tokyo.  The US had turned most of Okinawa over to Japan in 1972 after controlling it from the end of World War II in 1945.  This is the largest return of US-occupied land since then.

On Obama's Nod, Major Defense Contractors Plan To Build Jets In India.  The Obama administration gave the defense industry the go-ahead on plans to build classic American fighter jets in India.  With the support of the current administration, both Lockheed Martin and Boeing have been in talks with the Indian government to build the F-16 Fighting Falcon and the F/A-18 Super Hornet for the Indian Air Force in India, according to the Washington Post.

President Obama breaks record with most Medals of Freedom awarded.  President Obama set the record for awarding the most Medals of Freedom of any president on Tuesday at a ceremony where he recognized 21 recipients of the prestigious award.  At a glitzy gathering in the East Room of the White House, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden welcomed nearly two dozen actors, athletes, music legends, entertainers and pioneers in the arts and sciences, each of whom the president commended for displaying courage and commitment in their respective industries.

If You Look at Obama Vs.  GW Bush's Medal of Freedom Recipients You'll See One Big Difference.  President Obama has honored more civilians with the Medal of Freedom than any other president in history.  His most recent ceremony raising the total number to 123 recipients. [...] When addressing the nation in his last Medal of Freedom ceremony, President Obama said:  "Everyone on this stage has touched me in a powerful personal way.  These are folks who have helped make me who I am and think about my presidency."  And in the last ceremony under his administration, the majority of the recipients certainly have "touched" the President in a powerful personal way — and donated to the Democratic party according to the Federal Election Commission.

Obama Mourns Castro Who Wanted to Murder 100 Million Americans.  [#1] Obama, as usual, manages to turn Castro's death into a tribute to himself.  [#2] He offers prayers for a Communist butcher notorious for targeting the clergy[.]  [#3]  He evasively praises the crimes of a Communist monster while couching it in vague terminology such as History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him."

Obama leaves another stink bomb for the next president:
Trump may not be able to work in the Oval Office for over a year.  President Obama is apparently refusing to renovate the Oval Office — and has instead decided to pass the buck to Donald Trump, who may be forced to work somewhere else for a quarter of his term as a result of the numerous security upgrades that will be going on inside the room.  "My understanding is that for the first year of his time in office, President Trump will not have the Oval Office," former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove told Fox News on Wednesday.  "President Obama could have told the Secret Service, 'I know you want to modernize the Oval Office with security enhancements — literally strip it down to the bare walls and build it back up so we've got bulletproof glass and so forth and so on, security arrangements in it, in my last year in office,' but instead he said, 'Why don't you do that [with] whoever comes next.'"

Obama reaches 1,000 commuted prison sentences.  President Barack Obama surpassed the 1,000 mark for commutations granted during his presidency on Tuesday [11/22/2016] after shortening sentences for 79 people.  Obama has been granting commutations at rapid-fire pace in his final months in office.  All told, he's commuted more sentences than the past 11 presidents combined, the White House said.

Obama Hands Out Medals of Freedom to Major Democratic Donors, Supporters.  Barack Obama will deliver his final round of Presidential Medals of Freedom this week to a group largely comprised of Democratic donors and individuals who have supported him politically.  The White House on Wednesday unveiled the 2016 list of honorees, who will on Tuesday receive the nation's highest civilian award for making "especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States."  Eleven of the honorees have made contributions to Democratic committees or campaigns, including some that directly supported Obama, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission records by the Washington Free Beacon.  Twelve of the individuals have publicly backed Obama or his policies.

Feds Name New National Historic Landmarks, Including Ouija Board-Using Gay Poet's Home.  The Department of Interior (DOI) and the National Park Service (NPS) have announced 10 new national historic landmarks, including the home of a homosexual poet, a relic from Shamanism, and the location of a "utopian society."  "These 10 new national historic landmarks reveal important pieces of our nation's diverse heritage through art, architecture and stories of community and identity," DOI Secretary Sally Jewell said in a Nov. 2 press release announcing the landmarks.  "Today's designation ensures future generations can trace, understand and learn from these properties, which join more than 2,500 other landmarks nationwide," she said.

Trump to bring back Churchill statue shamefully removed from White House by Barack Obama.  Nigel Farage has revealed that Donald Trump will re-install a bust of Winston Churchill removed from the Oval Office by Barack Obama — in a clear sign of the friendship the new President wishes to foster with Britain.  The interim Ukip leader said Mr Trump has already pushed Britain to the front of the queue for a favourable trade relationship and added that he is the man to forge stronger ties with the US as he flew to visit the business tycoon in his first days as President Elect.  Mr Farage said:  "We talked about the prospect of the United Kingdom being at the front of the queue, all of which was met positively."

Will Obama Pardon Hillary?  Should He?  White House press secretary Josh Earnest raised some eyebrows on Wednesday [11/9/2016] when he engaged on the question whether President Obama would pardon Hillary Clinton before leaving office.  Earnest did not indicate that the president had made any commitment one way or the other, but the fact that he is clearly thinking about it is intriguing.  The question primarily arises because there is significant evidence of felony law violations.  These do not only involve the mishandling of classified information and the conversion/destruction of government files (i.e., the former secretary of state's government-related e-mails).  It has also been credibly reported that the FBI is investigating pay-to-play corruption during Clinton's State Department tenure, through the mechanism of the Clinton Foundation — the family "charity" by means of which the Clintons have become fabulously wealthy by leveraging their "public service."

White House Doesn't Rule Out Pardoning Hillary Clinton.  White House press secretary Josh Earnest did not rule out the possibility of President Barack Obama pardoning Hillary Clinton before he leaves office in January on Wednesday.  "Donald Trump during the campaign pledged to jail Hillary Clinton if he was elected over the federal investigations that are underway.  Some legal experts have said President Obama could close off that opportunity if he pardons Hillary Clinton.

Rudy Giuliani:  Pardoning Clinton would seal Obama's legacy as one of worst presidents.  Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said if President Obama pardons Hillary Clinton on his way out of office, it would seal his legacy as "one of the worst presidents."  "The FBI is still investigating the Clinton Foundation, so whoever the attorney general is, [is] going to have to evaluate that," Mr. Giuliani said on Wednesday's "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News.  Host Bill O'Reilly suggested Mr. Obama could pardon Mrs. Clinton before he leaves office.

A Blow to the Non-Elite Elite.  There were a lot of losers in this election, well beyond Hillary Clinton and the smug, incompetent pollsters and know-it-all, groupthink pundits who embarrassed themselves. [...] President Obama lost big-time as well.  He emerged from his virtual seclusion to campaign on behalf of Clinton in a way never before seen with a sitting president.  By Election Day, Obama had resorted to making fun of Donald Trump's baseball hats, and he took the low road of claiming that Trump would tolerate the Ku Klux Klan.  While encouraging Latinos to vote during an interview with actress Gina Rodriguez, Obama seemingly condoned voting by illegal immigrants when he said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would not be investigating voter rolls.  A Trump victory, along with a Republican majority in both houses of Congress, is a repudiation of the Obama administration's legacy and its effort to navigate around the law.

Already holding the record, Obama frees even more drug dealers.  But don't worry, he'll be safe.  Using his well-honed Barack-knows-best attitude, the president has overruled yet more federal judges, prosecutors and juries, commuting the prison sentences of 98 additional drug dealers.  This brings to 872 the number of commutations the Democrat has granted, 688 of them this year alone, a record.  More than 200 of these individuals were originally sent away for life by the nation's legal system.  Many of their crimes involved firearms.  The growing early-release figure for Obama, who has admitted his own past drug use, is already larger than the last 11 presidents combined, according to a boastful White House lawyer.  And with 84 days remaining on his Oval Office lease, the Chicagoan claims he is far from done.

Obama grants 72 more commutations to federal inmates.  President Obama granted another 72 commutations Friday for federal prisoners sentenced mainly for drug crimes, bringing his record total to 944 over eight years.  Nine of those receiving clemency had been convicted of firearms offenses along with their drug crimes.  In October, the president commuted the sentences of 200 prisoners, speeding up the pace of clemency actions as he nears the end of his presidency.  Just last week, he had granted 98 commutations.  "In just an eight-day period, the president has issued two rounds of grants, totaling 170 commutations," said White House counsel Neil Eggleston.  "With today's grants, the president has now commuted the sentences of 944 individuals, including 324 life sentences."

White House open to a Clinton pardon.  The White House isn't ruling out the possibility of Hillary Clinton receiving a last-minute pardon from President Obama — even though she hasn't been charged with a crime.  Asked at Wednesday's press briefing whether Obama had considered utilizing his unique executive power, press secretary Josh Earnest was cryptic.  "The president has offered clemency to a substantial number of Americans who were previously serving time in federal prisons," Earnest said.

Get off your high horses.  [Scroll down]  And finally, is it presidential for Obama to invite rappers to the White House who extol the murder of policemen and call women bitches and Blacks "niggas?" [...] The most recent presidential invite was in January 2016 when Kendrick Lamar met with President Obama in the Oval Office on Monday.  Lamar's "To Pimp A Butterfly" album shows a group of Black men in front of the White House holding champagne bottles and hundred-dollar bills on top of the dead body of a white judge.  Obama has said the rapper's "How Much a Dollar Cost" which is on that album was his favorite song of 2015.  That's presidential?

Trash talk and the White House.  The first lady, who for eight years has transformed the White House into the last surviving vaudeville venue (who needs Mozart when you might get Kanye West), revealed herself to be almost terminally offended by Donald Trump in a stump speech for Hillary Thursday [10/13/2016] in New Hampshire. [...] Some of the rappers who perform in the house once occupied by Lincoln and Adams, Jefferson, Jackson and FDR, spin rhymes about their bitches and their ho's, the thrill of killing cops and bringing down all manner of bad things on America.  Trashy behavior is not only invited into the White House, but the first lady's husband has bestowed honors on some of those who have tracked trash into the house.

Counting up the carnage.  President Obama has spent his presidency fanning the flames of distrust, even hosting at the White House members of Black Lives Matter, the radical organization that erupts in mindless protest whenever a black American is shot by cops, regardless of the circumstances.  The president has met 47 times with Democratic operative Robert Creamer, who is accused of organizing violent confrontations at rallies for Donald Trump, the Republican candidate.

Obama orders climate change be considered in military planning.  President Obama issued a new policy directive Wednesday to consider the effects of climate change in developing national security policy and planning across all major security agencies and the military.  "Today, President Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum on Climate Change and National Security, establishing a policy that the impacts of climate change must be considered in the development of national security-related doctrine, policies, and plans," the White House said.  "To achieve this, 20 federal agencies and offices with climate science, intelligence analysis, and national security policy development missions and responsibilities will collaborate to ensure the best information on climate impacts is available to strengthen our national security." White House special assistant to the president, Alice Hill, told reporters that the presidential memo will "prioritize climate threats" to identify the most significant risks to the nation's security and drive full consideration of climate change effects into national security plans and policies.

Obama Directs Federal Agencies to Consider Climate Change As a National Security Issue.  In a Sept. 21 memo to his department heads, President Obama instructed all federal departments and agencies to consider the impact of climate change on national security.  Obama states that it is the policy of the U.S. government to ensure that current and anticipated impacts of climate change be "identified and considered" in developing national security doctrine, policies and plans.  "Climate change poses a significant and growing threat to national security, both at home and abroad," the memo says.  Those threats, according to Obama, include flooding, drought, heat waves, intense precipitation, pest outbreaks, disease, and electricity problems, all of which can "affect economic prosperity, public health and safety, and international stability."

Obama's tragic admission:  He's learned nothing as president.  Once the smartest man in the room, always the smartest man in the room.  Never mind that the world is on fire, that America is polarized, angry and scared.  Or that ObamaCare is a sick patient, that the economy is growing at a snail's pace and that many cities are racial war zones.  It's not Obama's fault.  None of it.  He would do it all again.  With voters fixated on his successor, Obama is fixated on his legacy.  A large part of his effort on the way out the door is explaining what he did, and insisting that what he did was right.  Always.

Flashback: Hillary Called W. 'Invisible' After Hurricane Katrina in 2007 Ad.  In a radio ad to African American voters in 2007, then-Senator Hillary Clinton called President George W. Bush "invisible" in his response to Hurricane Katrina.  Clinton blasted Bush in the ad, which she ran in South Carolina, portraying him as an absentee president who neglected Katrina victims, despite flying over the state when it was hit with the fatal natural disaster.  "And if you're stuck on a rooftop or stranded in the Superdome during a hurricane, you're invisible to this president even when you're on CNN," Clinton said in the ad.

Obama, Democrats Ignore Own Disaster Response Advice; Could Cost Clinton Black Votes.  In 2005, erstwhile talented rapper Kanye West made the following claim at the end of an otherwise incoherent rant during a live fundraiser for the victims of Hurricane Katrina:  "George Bush doesn't care about black people".  Fast forward 11 years, when over three times as much rain has fallen on Louisiana, and you will see a news media doing their best to ignore the Obama administration's fecklessness during a similar time of strife, and a central government response that in and of itself has been underwhelming and deleterious to public confidence.

Obama's flood of hypocrisy opens the door for Trump.  On Friday [8/19/2016], while residents of Baton Rouge were recovering from a historic flood that damaged some 40,000 homes, Obama was on Martha's Vineyard watching fireworks, following 10 rounds of golf in 16 days.  Donald Trump, by contrast, was on the ground in the flood zone, unloading relief materials, touring the devastation and focusing much-needed attention on a disaster that has been largely ignored by the media.  Why wasn't Obama there?  According to a White House statement, "The President is mindful of the impact that his travel has on first responders and wants to ensure that his presence does not interfere with ongoing recovery efforts."

Obama: We Have Conversations About Climate Change in the Situation Room.  Speaking today [9/15/2016] at the State Department at the "2016 Our Ocean Conference," President Barack Obama said that a "healthier planet" is vital to U.S. "national security" and that he has conversations about climate change "in the Situation Room."  "But one thing that we all owe to [Secretary of State] John [Kerry] is his conviction that a healthier ocean and a healthier planet are about more than just our environment; they are also vital to our foreign policy and to our national security," said Obama.  "So he has elevated the profile of climate change, ocean protection to the point where we have conversations about this not just in the Oval Office, but in the Situation Room."

Milwaukee Burns, Louisiana Floods, Obama Golfs.  Racially-charged riots in Milwaukee and rampant flooding in Louisiana haven't kept President Barack Obama from golfing on Martha's Vineyard Monday afternoon for the second consecutive day.  The federal government declared a major disaster in Louisiana after rampant flooding left six people dead and more than 10,000 in shelters.  More than 20,000 people have been rescued from flooding across south Louisiana, Fox News reports.  In Milwaukee, authorities have struggled to control racially-charged riots stemming from the police shooting of an armed suspect on Saturday.  Both the suspect and the officer were black.  Several videos recording Saturday night appeared to show black rioters chasing down and attacking white passerby.

President Obama gets briefing on violence in Milwaukee, then goes golfing.  A vacationing President Obama received an update Sunday about a night of rioting and gunfire in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, before he headed out for another round of golf.  The White House said Mr. Obama was briefed on the unrest by senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, who spoke to Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.  The president later departed for a golf course on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, with former NBA star Alonzo Mourning, Washington lawyer Cy Walker and Mercer Cook, a cousin of Ms. Jarrett.

Transgender: Obama To End Single-Sex Bathrooms on Federal Property.  President Barack Obama's deputies will insert a rule in federal regulations on Friday [8/19/2016] to prevent federal facilities from operating single-sex bathrooms.  The rule in the "Federal Register" of regulations will open up thousands of bathrooms in federally operated buildings to employees and visitors who claim on any given day to be "transgender" members of the opposite sex.

What is President Obama's daughter Malia smoking at Lollapalooza festival?  The elder daughter of President Obama has been accused of using cannabis after a video emerged showing her smoking a rolled up cigarette at a concert.  According to reports in the US, Malia Obama was caught on camera smoking the cigarette at the Lollapalooza gig in Chicago last month.

The Editor says...
Whatsoever you sow, that shall you also reap.  If Malia Obama is already in the habit of making unwise decisions, even after living in luxury for the last seven years, it must be her parents' fault.

A chip off the old block:  Did Malia Obama smoke Marijuana at Lollapalooza?  Malia Obama has been accused of smoking marijuana after a video of her puffing on a suspicious cigarette was released.  The president's eldest daughter was seen inhaling from the cigarette during the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago.  The brief clip, published by Radar on Wednesday, shows the 18-year-old mingling with crowds as she takes a drag.  An eyewitness insisted she was smoking marijuana, the tabloid site reported.

Iranian President Asks His Friend Mr. Obama to 'fix' a $2 billion court ruling.  Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a letter to President Obama demanding the release of $2 billion in Iranian funds that were seized from bank accounts in New York earlier this year.  The money was taken to compensate family members of victims of the 1983 bombing of a Marine Corps barracks in Beirut and other attacks blamed on Iran under a Supreme Court ruling in April.  In all, 1,300 American victims have a legal claim to the money.  Ahmadinejad — known for his anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism — is said to be considering a political comeback and may be using Obama as a pawn to improve his standing.

Malia Obama spotted at 'rowdy' party shut down by cops.  Malia Obama isn't about to let a vacation with Mom and Dad stop her from partying like a pro.  According to the Boston Herald, the first daughter, who seems to have a well-developed eye for a good night out, attended a party on Martha's Vineyard that ended up getting shut down by the cops.

Police 'bust Malia Obama at wild Martha's Vineyard' party:  First Daughter 'is rushed out by Secret Service'.  After Malia Obama was reportedly caught at a raucous party that was broken up by police, the first daughter went on a long walk with her dad near their vacation home on Martha's Vineyard.  It's unclear what exactly the president and his eldest daughter, 18, discussed after the wild night out but it's hard to imagine that Malia's week of scandals didn't come up.  In addition to Secret Service escorting the first daughter out of the noisy bash, a video surfaced last week appearing to show Malia smoking marijuana at the Lollapalooza music festival earlier this summer.

President Obama gets briefing on violence in Milwaukee, then goes golfing.  A vacationing President Obama received an update Sunday about a night of rioting and gunfire in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, before he headed out for another round of golf.  The White House said Mr. Obama was briefed on the unrest by senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, who spoke to Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.  The president later departed for a golf course on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, with former NBA star Alonzo Mourning, Washington lawyer Cy Walker and Mercer Cook, a cousin of Ms. Jarrett.

When the White House uses a foreign leader as a political prop.  Yesterday [7/22/2016] we were witness to one of the most blatantly politically craven displays to mar the grounds of the White House in recent memory when the President brought in the leader of another sovereign nation to do Hillary Clinton's campaign work for her.  On the day after Donald Trump delivered his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, Barack Obama hosted a hastily arranged press conference with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and it of course featured the Republican celebration and the new nominee prominently, with Mexico's leader acting as a stage prop in that effort.  How blatant was this very thinly disguised campaign stop?

Obama, environmentalists slammed as hypocrites over presidential library location.  President Obama's plan to bulldoze a sensitive Chicago lakefront park in order to build his presidential library is meeting with outrage — but not from environmental groups.  Even as local environmentalists say they will not challenge the library in spite of concerns, others are accusing Mr. Obama of hypocrisy, pointing to his record of aggressively blocking badly needed development elsewhere in the name of ecological protection.

Two Priorities of the Government.  Priority 2: Easing the Path of Criminals.  We've just had another record-setting release of criminals.  Mostly, they seem to be released because the President believes that they were just being picked on because of their race.  The 214 felons, including 67 lifers, are already out.  ABC News has an inadvertently funny report:  ["]Almost all the prisoners were serving time for nonviolent crimes related to cocaine, methamphetamine or other drugs, although a few were charged with firearms violations related to their drug activities.["]  Depends on how you define "a few," cupcake.  The lifers were almost all felons in possession; of the others, about 25% of them had a firearms charge, and others had prior violent crimes, although this time they didn't shoot anybody.

White House won't light up blue to honor Dallas cops.  The head of a national law enforcement group said the White House is dealing a "slap in the face" to police by refusing to illuminate the president's house in blue to show support for law enforcement after the assassination of five officers in Dallas.  Nate Catura, president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, called the decision by the White House "outrageous," noting that the White House was lit in rainbow colors last year after the Supreme Court affirmed gay marriage.  "I'm not surprised, but I'm very disappointed," Mr. Catura said.  "We have slain police officers that were intentionally targeted, they were assassinated. ... He states that he's sorry for the police officers and the families, but his actions in this case speak louder than his words."

Grinning Obama JOKES during statement on Munich carnage.  As news reports of a gun massacre in Munich crossed the Atlantic Ocean on Friday, the President of the United States was cracking jokes.  Barack Obama delivered a brief update to reporters at the White House about the still-unfolding shooting rampage that left the German city on lockdown.  Eight are confirmed dead, and 10 injured. [...] But as cameras rolled on the somber moment, Obama grinned and chuckled — and drew laughs from his audience — about his elder daughter Malia leaving the nest and heading for college.

Was Malia heading for college, or somewhere else?
Malia Obama Caught on Video Twerking and Flashing the Crowd at Lollapalooza.  First daughter Malia Obama skipped out on the Democratic National Convention last week (who can blame her?) so she could attend Lollapalooza, the annual music fest in Chicago.  The 18-year-old recently graduated from high school and is planning to take a gap year before she begins classes at Harvard in 2017.  Her Secret Service agents must have their hands full trying to keep Malia safe amid the swarms of concertgoers, many of whom were there to enjoy more than just the music.

The Earliest Train Out.  The Obama administration has reacted to Beiing's defiant declaration that it will not abide by the international tribunal's ruling against its claim in the South China predictably.  It has warned the small countries which won the lawsuit not to provoke China.

Once Again, Obama Tries To Deflect Blame For Police Shootings.  Hours after three Baton Rouge police officers had been killed, and two others injured and one was clinging to life, Obama took to the podium in the White House to decry the attacks.  "Nothing justifies violence against law enforcement," he said.  "Attacks on police are an attack on all of us and the rule of law that makes society possible."  So far so good.  But then Obama went on to blame "inflammatory rhetoric" and "careless accusations thrown around to score political points or to advance an agenda," and complained that "around-the-clock new cycles and social media (that) sometimes amplify these divisions," as do "political conventions."

Obama Never Once Met With His Defense Intelligence Chief.  President Barack Obama twice appointed former Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn to key national security jobs in his administration, including as deputy director of national intelligence and later as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, yet he never once met with Flynn face to face.  The general, who spent 33 years in the intelligence field, told The Daily Caller News Foundation he was never called in for a face-to-face meeting with Obama to offer his assessment of ISIS as it rampaged through the Middle East, or during the political meltdown of Libya and Egypt, or on Iran's efforts to build a nuclear bomb, or of the "Russian reset" that ended in shambles.

Muslim Terrorists Slaughter at Least 50 in Istanbul; Obama Stacks Cheerios for Buzzfeed.  If there was ever a more [condemnatory] juxtaposition than this, we can only think of a guy so insensitive he'd tee off moments after an American was beheaded on video.  Oh wait, that's the same guy.

The Editor says...
Please note that Mr. Obama was probably not the person who stacked the Cheerios seen in the publicity photo.  If I were to guess, based on Mr. Obama's history of deception and disingenuousness, I'd say the Cheerios seen in the picture were probably glued together by someone on Obama's staff, to make Mr. Obama appear to be more skillful than he really is.

Senator: Navy Evaluates Commanders Based On Climate Change Views.  Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse recently told people gathered in New York City that global warming "denial" hurts U.S. soldiers in the field and that the "main problem" with the military is its reluctance to join the climate crusade.  "The problem has been that the uniformed military has been reluctant to put its voice into — or its image into this fight," Whitehouse said, according to a YouTube video posted Thursday [6/30/2016].

Obama is 'discussing' buying into an NBA basketball team when he leaves the White House.  Barack Obama has held talks about buying into an NBA basketball team after he leaves the White House.  The US President has 'discussed' investing in a franchise as a way to fill his days when he steps down at the end of this year.  Mr Obama is a huge basketball fan and regularly plays the game to keep fit.  He has also been the coach for his daughter Sasha's school basketball team.

Where is Mr. Obama going to get that kind of money?
Celebrity in Chief Might Get His Own NBA Team.  No the brilliant constitutional scholar of the left is not going to spend the next forty years on serious policy.  He couldn't even do that while in office.  Like Bill Clinton, he's going to find reasons to hang around celebrities, get paid lots of money for his speeches and do some fake humanitarian stuff to be taken seriously.

Obama has 'discussed' owning an NBA team post-White House.  Press secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday that Obama, an unabashed sports fan, has "discussed" joining an ownership group for an NBA franchise.  But Earnest also added that Obama would move forward only "under the right circumstances."  Obama has made no secret of his love of all things Chicago, especially the city's sports teams.  Could the Bulls be on his radar one day?

The Editor says...
Jimmy Carter spent his retirement years building houses with Habitat for Humanity.  George W. Bush goes cross-country bicycling with wounded veterans.  Barack H. Obama wants to bask in his celebrity for the rest of his life, after someone sets him up as part owner of a basketball team.  This man has never run a business in his life, and I'm sure the majority owners of the unfortunate team will keep his hands off the controls.

Obama Commutes Sentences of More Violent Criminals.  The fundamental transformation continues to roll on as scheduled.  As always, Obama waited until late Friday afternoon, when reporters largely pack up for the weekend, to announce the commutation of sentences for 42 more drug traffickers in federal prison.  President Obama defended this move as a common sense gesture to low-level nonviolent drug offenders, but as we've explained over the past few years, most people in federal prison are anything but "nonviolent."  MRC has posted the names of 10 of the individuals who were convicted of firearms violations in addition to drug trafficking charges.  This at a time when Obama wants to crack down on law-abiding gun owners and dealers.

Rick Scott:  George W. Bush and Donald Trump called me with condolences about Orlando, but not Obama.  I know, he'll be in Florida Thursday [6/16/2016] and will probably see Scott then, but that didn't stop Obama from phoning the mayor of Orlando, whom he'll probably also meet.  Is there anything that conceivably explains this except personal pique, i.e., Obama acting like a baby because Scott's been critical of him publicly?

Iowa congressman wants to block $20 Tubman.  An Iowa congressman has proposed legislation that would block Harriet Tubman from replacing President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill.  Republican Rep. Steve King introduced an amendment to bar the Treasury Department from spending any funds to redesign paper money or coin currency.

Obama Wants 'Radical' Who Fought for PORN in Public Libraries to Run Library of Congress.  There is now a Republican-led effort for the Senate to confirm President Obama's nomination of Carla Hayden to be the librarian of Congress.  Her confirmation hearing proceeded without any serious review of her record, her views, or her qualifications.  The American people should be asking why any senator would be anxious to confirm a nominee who is not only unqualified, but whom The Nation magazine celebrated as a "radical librarian" who champions unrestricted access to pornography in public libraries.

Sheriff: Obama is the Only President to Tell Killers 'They Are Product of Racist Criminal Justice System'.  Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke told an audience at the National Rifle Association-Institute for Legislative Action's (NRA-ILA) Leadership Forum in Louisville, Ky., on Friday [5/20/2016] that President Barack Obama is the first president in history to visit a prison and tell rapists, drug dealers, and murderers "that they are the product of a racist criminal justice system."  "Today's society confronts us with many threats from criminal behavior.  In fact, our criminal friendly president spends his final days releasing violent career criminals back onto the streets of already struggling communities," Clarke said.  "He is the only president in U.S. history to visit a prison and tell killers and rapists and drug dealers that they are the product of a racist criminal justice system.

President Obama Is Visiting Hiroshima.  Why Not Pearl Harbor?  President Obama is visiting Hiroshima this week, the site of the August 6, 1945, dropping of the atomic bomb that helped end World War II in the Pacific Theater.  But strangely, he has so far announced no plans to visit Pearl Harbor on the anniversary of the attack.  The president, who spent much of his childhood in Hawaii, should do so — given that many Americans have forgotten why the Japanese attacked the United States and why they falsely assumed that they could defeat the world's largest economic power.  Imperial Japan was not, as often claimed, forced into a corner by a U.S. oil embargo, which came only after years of horrific Japanese atrocities in China and Southeast Asia.  Instead, an opportunistic and aggressive fascist Japan gambled that the geostrategy of late 1941 had made America uniquely vulnerable to a surprise attack.

Obama cuts prison sentences for 42 drug offenders.  President Barack Obama has shortened the sentences of 42 people serving time for drug-related offenses, continuing a push for clemency that has ramped up in the final year of his administration.

Obama's plan to reintegrate ex-convicts into society raises crime fears.  The Obama administration has gone into overdrive in the last two months, pushing administrative policy changes to make it easier for ex-convicts to rejoin society, but at the same time sparking concern that reforms will increase crime and jeopardize safety.  The federal efforts have been spurred on in part by bipartisan criminal justice reforms enacted at the state level and changing public opinion that has warmed to second chances, experts say.  Reforms have included recommendations to make it easier for ex-offenders to obtain state ID cards, removing questions about criminal history from federal job applications and suggestions to do the same for college applications, and warning landlords that rejecting renters based on their criminal history may violate federal law.

Keywords: reality show, unserious, tabloid, narcissist, no class.
Obama Tapes CNN Food Show Appearance While In Vietnam.  Obama has recently criticized presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump by insisting that the presidency "is not entertainment — this is not a reality show."  According to Politico, a CNN spokesperson said that Obama and Bourdain's "conversation will be featured in an upcoming episode of Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown, returning for its eighth season in September."  "Bourdain will explore the purpose of the President's trip and his interest in the people, food and culture of Vietnam," according to CNN.

President Obama swigs beer with Anthony Bourdain and goes shopping with CNN host.  Obama took a break from his hectic trip to Vietnam to hang out with Anthony Bourdain again on Tuesday [5/24/2016].  The president filmed the second half of his interview with the 'Parts Unknown' host after the White House posted a photo of Bourdain and Obama swigging beers.

DHS freed nearly 20,000 convicted criminal immigrants in 2015.  The U.S. tried repeatedly to deport Jean Jacques, an immigrant living in the U.S. illegally, but his native Haiti wouldn't take him back after he served more than a decade in a state prison for attempted murder and committed multiple parole violations.  Each time Jacques was arrested on a parole violation, he would serve a sentence in state prison and then be released to immigration custody.  At least three times, Haiti refused to take him back, so Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in early 2015 did the same thing they do thousands of times a year — they released a violent criminal immigrant from jail.

U.S. Ends Decades-Long Arms Embargo On Vietnam.  The U.S. is ending a decades long arms embargo on Vietnam, President Obama announced Monday in Hanoi.  At a press conference alongside Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang, the president said lifting the embargo, which has been in place since 1975, will further normalize relations between the two countries.  "This change will ensure Vietnam has access to the equipment it needs to defend itself and removes a lingering vestige of the Cold War," he said.

The Editor says...
The Vietnam war was not the Cold War, you moron!

Obama weighs selling U.S. arms to Hanoi in bitter irony for Vietnam veterans.  In a move that is raising concerns among some Vietnam War veterans, President Obama will discuss selling more U.S. arms to Hanoi during his visit to Vietnam that began Sunday night [5/22/2016].  Top White House advisers said Mr. Obama hasn't made a decision whether to lift the partial U.S. embargo on sending military equipment to Vietnam, where more than 58,200 U.S. soldiers were killed before the fall of Saigon in 1975.  But the administration sees advantages in easing the embargo, both as a warning to expansionist China and as leverage to compel the communist regime in Hanoi to improve its record on human rights.

DOJ Decides It Won't Call People 'Felons' Or 'Convicts' Because Hurts Their Feelings.  An official with the Department of Justice said the agency will no longer call people "felons" or "convicts" after they are released from prison because it is too hard on them emotionally.  Assistant Attorney General Karol Mason wrote a piece in The Washington Post Wednesday saying "many of the formerly incarcerated men, women, and young people I talk with say that no punishment is harsher than being permanently branded a 'felon' or 'offender.'"

Obama Is In No Position To Say The Presidency Isn't a Reality Show.  President Obama is in no position to criticize Donald Trump's candidacy as a reality show when his entire political career has been a reality show with a fawning press in tow.  Let's remember that this is the same man who consented to being "interviewed" by a woman who eat Fruit Loops in her bathtub.  President Obama has also had time to sit between two ferns with Zach Galfianakis, hang out in the wilderness with Bear Grylls and get coffee with Jerry Seinfeld.  It's hard to listen to President Obama to say we live in serious times when he was perfectly content to watch a baseball game in Havana with Raul Castro and dance The Last Tango in Buenos Aires as Brussels burned.

President Death.  Well, President Obama has just returned from an overseas visit, trying to convince Britain and Germany to sign his trade deal and generally butting into European politics in a way many had not expected when President Peace Prize descended from heaven to give the world the new, improved, "Smart Diplomacy."  The latest international disaster occurred in Great Britain, when the President gave a speech urging the UK to remain in the European Union.  Despite warnings from many quarters that such intrusion in the idea of the Brexit — the British Exit — would be less than appreciated, President Stupid went and did it anyway, [...]

Obama's Green Agenda Should Be Kept Out of National Security.  This week I will be offering an amendment to this year's National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to prevent scarce defense dollars from being squandered on President Barack Obama's executive orders regarding climate change.  These executive orders require the Department of Defense (DOD) to incorporate a host of climate change bureaucracies into its acquisition programs, logistics planning, and military plans and operations.  The military is also required to help state and local governments "go green."  These activities are simply not the mission of the U.S. military.  They harm readiness rather than contribute to the lethality of our armed forces.  The military's mission is to train for and fight our nation's wars, not assist state and local governments with their carbon emissions levels.

With Apologies to Nathan Hale.  [Scroll down]  Better yet, would Hale die happily for the freedom that rapper Rick Ross enjoys while on a visit to the White House?  Ross was a guest of President Obama, but during the visit his ankle bracelet started beeping.  Obama was discussing keeping kids from crime, when a real criminal's beeper went off.  Ross wears the bracelet because he's out on bail for kidnapping and pistol-whipping his groundskeeper.  Ross is also a songwriter.  His lyrics promote Ecstasy and date rape.  Oh, yes, and last year he fantasized in a rap song about killing a presidential candidate, a white one.  Would Nathan really go happily to the gallows so Ross could be free to publish his stuff?

Barack bombs in Britain.  Well, the polls are in and — not to put too fine a point on it — President Obama has bombed.  Last week, disregarding the convention that heads of government don't intervene directly in the internal elections of friendly states, the president came to London to tell us to vote to stay in the European Union.  He didn't hint or suggest or imply.  He told us bluntly that, if we left the EU, we'd go "to the back of the queue" when it came to signing trade deals with Washington.

Senator Charges Obama's Executive Clemency Program with Putting Firearm Offenders on the Streets.  Information has now arisen that the Obama administration is granting executive clemency to dozens of felons imprisoned for firearm-related offenses, some whose crimes involved possessing or using a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking crimes.  These criminals will for the most part be released back into the very communities that they exploited and victimized with their offenses.

Once Again Mr. President, You Misspoke.  The vote is on June 23.  On Friday [4/22/2016] our president also penned a column in the Daily Telegraph, Britain's equivalent of the Washington Times and the Wall Street Journal.  Both at his press conference and in his column Mr. Obama argued that Britain should not vote to leave the EU.  The British should stay in Europe.  Until Mr. Obama marshaled his case, I was uncertain as to what our British allies should do.  Now I know.  After reading his column and listening to his press conference the answer became clear.  Britain should opt out of the EU.  Once again President Obama's reasoning made the case inescapable.  Once again he was wrong and arrogantly wrong.

Obama gives U.K. 'friendly' advice:  Stay in the European Union.  A vote to leave the EU is known as "Brexit."  Prime Minister David Cameron is campaigning for Britain to remain in the EU.  "Instead of standing with our allies President Obama routinely hurls insults at them," Cruz wrote in an article published by The Times of London on Wednesday.  He said Obama's comment was "nothing less than a slap in the face of British self-determination."

Obama's Anti-Brexit Threat Will Backfire.  Last Friday Barack Obama made an extraordinary intervention into the British debate over whether or not to remain in the European Union. [...] Obama's comments were a direct threat against those who wish to see Britain become a truly sovereign nation, with the freedom to shape their own destiny on the world stage.  They were meant to convey a message that the United Kingdom would be treated just like any other country by the United States if it reasserts its sovereignty, despite the fact that Great Britain is America's most important ally in the world, with extremely close economic, defense, and intelligence ties.

Obama's comments on free trade agreements show he doesn't know what free trade is.  It is absolutely ridiculous for President Barack Obama to threaten sending Great Britain to the back of the trade line if they leave the EU.  John [Sexton] had a very good summary of what the President said yesterday [4/22/2016], including the fact Obama later claimed his comment wasn't really a threat.  But come on, what else could it be?

Apparently Obama & Company think the British equivalent of the Secret Service can't be trusted.
Queen: Obama's 'Over The Top' Copters Wrecked My Garden.  The Queen banned Obama from landing a dozen helicopters at Windsor Castle because last time he visited six of them ruined the lawn.  The 90-year-old monarch is said to have told aides the helicopters were 'over the top' and they would be limited to three.  US Secret Service claimed it needed all twelve so agents could be in close proximity to the President when he came to the castle on Friday.  The service also demanded to post guards inside the private dinner with the Queen and Obama, presumably to prevent the pensioner attacking the President.  Commenting on the three helicopter limit an insider told the Daily Star newspaper:  "Various US aides said that wouldn't be possible.  The President has a small army of Secret Service agents who follow him all over."

No whitewash for Harriet Tubman.  Sometimes the government does the right thing for the wrong reasons.  Treasury Secretary Jack Lew's decision to put Harriet Tubman's face on the nation's currency was the right thing to do, even if it was done as a way to demote Andrew Jackson, the nation's seventh president, to the back of the bill.  Many liberals are unhappy that Mr. Lew picked the wrong black woman.  Harriet Tubman was a devout Christian and she armed herself, with both pistols and long rifles.  Choose your wrong reason.

Mr. Obama, you should have stayed home.  Your trip to Saudi Arabia, Europe signals weakness.  [Scroll down]  Obama's tin-eared comments about Saudi Arabia may be why Saudi King Salman was not there to greet him when the president's plane landed in Riyadh Wednesday [4/20/2016].  The King did greet other heads of state when they arrived, according to Reuters.  Given the way he has ignored Saudi security concerns and tilted toward Iran during his presidency, I assume the Saudis have written off Mr. Obama and recognize that most experts in Washington — Republican and Democrat — do not share his radical and disjointed foreign policy views.

Obama will go to Hiroshima next month after G7 summit, but US officials stay mum about an apology for the atomic bomb.  President Barack Obama will visit Hiroshima after a G7 summit in Japan next month, according to the country's Nikkei Business Daily.  Obama's visit will have an enormous symbolic importance after Secretary of State John Kerry became the highest-ranking US administration official to pay his respects at the city's peace memorial earlier this month.  It remains to be seen whether Obama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 for his efforts towards nuclear disarmament, will issue an apology for the atomic bomb dropped on August 6, 1945.

Why should we take advice from a president who has surrendered the world to chaos?  So the President invoked the European graves of those American servicemen who died to protect — well, what exactly?  I thought it was the democratic values and reverence for national independence that Britain shared with the US. Did Mr Obama have any sense at all that what he was now urging the British electorate to accept was precisely the surrender of those sacred principles of democratically accountable government and self-determination for which the combined American and British forces had made their ultimate sacrifice?  Could this bizarre intervention have been more cynical or wilfully misinformed?  In the end, it seemed to come down to trade advantages — to what might once, back in the day, have been called the global interests of US corporate capitalism.

Under Obama, every facet of the government is politicized.
Navy Secretary Bends Rules About Ship Naming to Honor Democratic Politician.  Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus is under fire for bending service rules in order to name the next Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer after a retired Democratic politician.  Mabus, who has previously been accused of politicizing the ship-naming process, announced Monday [4/11/2016] that the destroyer will be named after Carl Levin, a former Democratic U.S. senator from Michigan who is still alive and did not serve in the U.S. military.  Mabus disregarded Navy ship-naming rules stipulating that destroyers should be named for deceased members of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, including secretaries of the Navy.

The president shouldn't be meeting with celebrity thugs.  What is President Obama doing by publicly taking "role model" advice from a guy wearing an ankle monitor?  At a White House summit last week to discuss his "My Brother's Keeper" initiative, Obama met with performers Common, Nikki Minaj, Busta Rhymes, Ludacris, Wale, DJ Khaled, Alicia Keyes and a Who's Who of other "socially conscious and highly influential" artists.  Now TMZ reports that rapper Rick Ross' ankle bracelet started beeping midway through the president's remarks.  What's a discussion about keeping kids from crime without a real criminal in the house?

With Obama, truth is stranger than fiction.  Over the weekend, President Obama met at the White House with some rappers to get their ideas on the pressing criminal justice issues of the day.  During the meeting, one of the deep thinkers had his ankle bracelet go off.  It turns out that rapper Ricky Ross is on $2,000,000 bond for kidnapping and pistol whipping his house contractor.

Obama plays the clown by flashing the peace sign for nuclear security summit 'team photo'.  After a day of tense, sensitive discussions on ISIS and the Middle East, Obama played up for the cameras as he grinned and held up the peace sign.  The President has come under fire for his relaxed attitude in recent weeks.  On a state visit to Argentina, he was seen dancing the tango with an attractive female dancer.  On a historic visit to Cuba, he went to a baseball game instead of returning to the United States to respond to the horrific terrorist attacks in Brussels.  Before that, Obama chose not to attend the funeral of former First Lady Nancy Reagan, electing to go to a music festival and eat tacos instead.

Police fume as another cop killed on duty and still no mention by Obama.  One more police officer was shot to death this week, raising the number to 16 this year, and still President Obama hasn't mentioned the slayings or reached out to the victims, according to law enforcement.  Virginia State Trooper Chad Phillip Dermyer, 37, was killed Thursday [3/31/2016] at a Richmond bus station.  Richmond is less than two hours from the White House.

Will an Atomic ISIS Finally Get Obama Off the Dance Floor?  Obama similarly debased himself and humiliated his country via a tango in Buenos Aires, a baseball game with Cuban despot Raul Castro in Havana (including Obama doing the wave), and an Easter-eve round of golf.  All this transpired barely hours after radical Islamic terrorists turned Brussels into a slaughterhouse.  Just before Obama partied, ISIS killers wounded 316 and murdered 32 innocents, including four Americans, in a NATO-allied capital.  What, if anything, will make Obama abandon his Ringling Bros.-quality clown routine, display a modicum of maturity, and — at long last — get serious about obliterating jihad in general and ISIS in particular?

Havana Obama and the Soppy Greeting Card War.  Is it any wonder that citizens in the U.S. and Western Europe are increasingly viewing their political leaders with disdain and are seeking to oust them? [...] As various sites in Belgium were the scenes of civilian and infrastructure devastation, Americans saw our president and his entourage posing before Cuba's dreaded Ministry of Interior, which is decorated with a huge sculpture honoring the racist, homophobic butcher Che Guevara.  We learned the names and biographies of the dead and missing as he tangoed in Buenos Aires, to which he took two Air Force planes to facilitate sightseeing for the first family and their large entourage.

Obama dances as the world reels from (more) terror attacks.  As soon as the terror in Brussels ended, the post-terror rituals began.  Photos and videos of the carnage emerged, victims were given names and faces and allies expressed their sorrow and pledged assistance.  Citizens of Brussels, following the lead of New Yorkers after 9/11 and Parisians after two attacks last year, created shrines and odes to the dead.  In America, security ramped up as millions feared their cities would be next, and officials vowed to harden our defenses in the fight against Islamic State.  Unfortunately, the rituals also include President Obama doing something stupid.

After Kissing The Cuban Snake, Much To His Surprise, Obama Gets Bit.  It was all so choreographed.  President Obama's "historic" trip to Cuba was prepped and re-prepped so that nothing would go off with a glitch.  Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes jetted into Havana for the preparations; and, depending on the news report, Secretary of State John Kerry might have made an appearance there, too.  President Obama spouted his treacly niceties, drew his moral equivalences and blended it all out with a sea of banalities about "the future" in a not-so-disguised effort to create his own Nixon In China legacy thing.  Never mind that dissidents were being beaten by Cuban security organs and that "President" Raul Castro offered no concessions toward human rights.  Obama's was laser-focused on sending the message of "fun" for the trip.  As a major terror attack engulfed Brussels, Obama did the "wave" with the Cuban dictator.

Krauthammer's Take: Obama 'Can't Be Dancing When Other People Are Mourning'.  Even as there was no sense in President Obama cutting short his trip abroad in the aftermath of the Brussels attack, "there's the issue of simple common decency," Charles Krauthammer said tonight.  "What the Founders called ... the respect for the opinion of mankind."  "The Belgians are in the midst of scraping the blood off the walls of their airport, people are still dying, people are not yet found, and he cannot have displays of frivolous entertainment," Krauthammer said on Thursday's [3/24/2016] Special Report.  "There was no reason he couldn't cancel the baseball game.  The tango is just stupendously insensitive."

Our Secretary-General In Chief.  Terror in Brussels leaves at least 30 dead.  Visiting Cuba, President Obama responds.  For 51 seconds.  Then he gets back to burying the Cold War.  Which ended in 1991.  Later in Havana, explaining to ESPN why he followed through with plans to attend a baseball game despite the international crisis, the president invoked David Ortiz of the Red Sox, who rallied Boston after the 2013 marathon bombing.  What Obama said of Ortiz is revealing.  "That is the kind of resilience and kind of strength that we have to continually show in the face of these terrorists," he said.  "They cannot defeat America.  They can't — they don't produce anything.  They don't have a message that appeals to the vast majority of Muslims or the vast majority of people around the world.  But what they can do is scare us and make people afraid and disrupt our daily lives and divide us.  As long as we don't allow that to happen, we'll be ok."  Whew, what a relief.  Islamic holy warriors bomb, kill, maim, mutilate, decapitate, rape, crucify, and shoot civilians of every sex, age, race, and creed — but they won't win, so long as the president maintains the fortitude to stick to his schedule and watch a baseball game with a Communist dictator.

John Kerry defends Obama's decision to stay in Cuba after Brussels attacks.  John Kerry has defended Barack Obama's decision to stay in Cuba and stick to his diplomatic schedule after the Brussels attacks.  The Secretary of State addressed the issue on CBS's Face The Nation on Saturday [3/26/2016].  Host John Dickerson asked Kerry how he would respond to those who criticized Obama for attending a baseball game in Cuba on the day of the attacks and dancing the tango in Argentina the following day.  Kerry responded by quoting conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer, saying the President's schedule was 'not set by terrorists'.

Obama Dances The Tango While The World Burns.  President Obama is enjoying a taste of Latin America culture, spending the evening at a state dinner in Argentina.  After dinner, two dancers appeared to perform a tango dance for the President and the First Lady.  At one point, the female dancer asked Obama to dance and after initially resisting, he got up to dance while the First Lady danced with the male dancers.  According to the pool reporter, many guests began videotaping the presidential pair dancing with their partners.

Explaining Obama's Behavior.  Brussels is burning.  You might think that it's only Belgium's problem, but the terrorists did target Americans.  They blew up the terminal that had the most American airlines and chose a subway near the American embassy.  Thus, they were targeting America and Americans. [...] In response, President Barack Obama shrugged his shoulders and went to a baseball game where he did the wave with Raoul Castro.  He appeared on a Cuban comedy show and topped it off last night by doing the tango at a state dinner in Argentina.

Obama's ideological holiday in Havana.  The split screen told the story: on one side, images of the terror bombing in Brussels; on the other, Barack Obama doing the wave with Raúl Castro at a baseball game in Havana.  On one side, the real world of rising global terrorism.  On the other, the Obama fantasy world in which romancing a geopolitically insignificant Cuba — without an ounce of democracy or human rights yielded in return — is considered a seminal achievement of American diplomacy.  Cuba wasn't so much a legacy trip as a vanity trip, vindicating the dorm-room enthusiasms of one's student days when the Sandinistas were cool, revolution was king and every other friend had a dog named Che.

Obama: Islamic State 'Perverted One Of The World's Great Religions'.  President Obama denounced the violent activities of Islamic State terrorists, asserting that they had distorted the teachings of Islam to promote their hatred around the world.  "They are vicious killers and murderers who have perverted one of the world's great religions," Obama said, "And their primary power in addition to killing innocent lives is to strike fear in our societies, to disrupt our societies."  Obama made his remarks during a press conference today in Argentina with President Mauricio Macri, defending his decision to continue his foreign policy trip Latin America, in spite of the recent terrorist attack in Brussels that killed over 30 people.

The Editor says...
In this case, a family vacation — all expenses paid by us — is called a "foreign policy trip."

Why the Obama-Che Photo Was Even Worse Than It Looked.  One of the first places I visited on a government-sanctioned "educational" tour to Cuba several years back was the Plaza de la Revolucion, a hideous expanse of concrete at the center of Havana that makes, say, Tiananmen Square look positively charming.  It was there that President Obama was featured in that now-infamous photo in front of a giant mural of Che Guevara.  It was unfortunate that the president lent his imprimatur to Guevara, a totalitarian who was responsible for the death of thousands.  But, in some ways, the photo-op was even worse than it looked.  Because as we learned on our tour, the building that Guevara's face adorns is home to the Cuban Ministry of the Interior.  Unlike our own Ministry of the Interior, Cuba's is not charged with innocuous tasks like protecting endangered waterfowl.  Rather, it operates the National Revolutionary Police, which, in addition to keeping law and order on the streets, harasses and arrests dissidents, and suppresses "counter-revolutionary" activities.  In other words, it's Cuba's version of the Stasi.

Obama catches 'optics' flak over state dinner tango.  First, he caught heat for doing the wave alongside Cuba's dictator — while the rest of the world was watching images of ISIS carnage in Brussels.  Now, new images of President Obama doing the tango — albeit a bit awkwardly — in Buenos Aires are further fueling an "optics" problem as he defends the decision to go on with the diplomatic program in Latin America despite this week's horrific events in Belgium.  Even Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said Thursday [3/24/2016] that the dance number in Argentina was a bad move.  [Video clip]

Fifty Seconds.  Fifty seconds.  A little more than one second per dead body.  That's what President Barack Obama spent opening his Tuesday morning press conference from Havana, Cuba, reacting to the death of at least 30 human beings and injuries to at least 230 more in two coordinated terrorist attacks in Brussels.  Fifty seconds.  I suppose you've got to keep on schedule when there's a baseball game to get to, right?

Obamas are all smiles as they continue tour in Argentina despite growing criticism.  It appears to be business as usual for the Obamas as they were pictured landing in Argentina early Wednesday — less than 24 hours after the terror attacks in Brussels, that killed at least 34 people and injured 200, nine of whom were Americans.  The family were seen waving and smiling as they made their way off the private plane that had just touched down at the international Buenos Aires airport.  Obama — accompanied by wife Michelle, daughters Sasha and Malia — is on a two day official visit to Argentina having just left Cuba.

"You don't send a picture of yourself laughing while people have just been blown up."
Mayor Rudy Giuliani hits Obama for attending baseball game in Cuba after Brussels bombings.  Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani ripped into President Barack Obama for attending a baseball game in Cuba yesterday afternoon instead of jumping on his plane and coming home after the Brussels attacks.  'You don't send a picture of yourself laughing ,while people have just been blown up at a level that... is the equivalent of September 11 to one of our allies,' said Giuliani, mayor of New York at the time of deadly 2001 terrorist attacks.  Republicans are angry with Obama for staying in Cuba in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Belgium and going about his day as planned.

Video: Obama spends 51 seconds on Brussels before going back to Cuba speech.  President Obama spent exactly 51 seconds discussing Tuesday's terror attacks in Brussels before pivoting back to his prepared remarks in Cuba.  Obama asked the Havana audience to "please indulge me" before committing that the U.S. "will do whatever is necessary" to support the people of Belgium.

The Editor says...
Yes, Mr. Obama "will do whatever is necessary" as long as it doesn't interfere with his Cuban junket, his ESPN interview, and his attendance at a baseball game.

Smiling Obama ignores calls to cut short Cuban trip and attends baseball game.  President Obama was all smiles this afternoon as he watched an exhibition baseball game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban national baseball team — just hours after ISIS terrorists killed at least 34 people in Brussels.  Settling down with wife Michelle, daughters Sasha and Malia and Cuban dictator Raul Castro, Obama appeared carefree as he enjoyed the game — ignoring calls to cut short his historic trip to return to Washington and lead the response.  Indeed, despite criticism that he only devoted one minute of his speech earlier in the day to the Belgian atrocities, Obama took the time to give a somewhat surreal 15-minute interview to ESPN about the threat posed by ISIS — keeping his $500 shades on throughout the spot.

President Obama Explains Why He Decided to Attend Baseball Game in Cuba Despite Brussels.  President Obama has been spending the past few days in Cuba as part of a historic trip, but with the Brussels terror attack today, some are wondering if the President needs to reassess immediate priorities.  And, in fact, President Obama did an interview with ESPN this afternoon where he addressed that very issue.  He was asked — while at a stadium in Cuba where a baseball game was taking place — if he considered not attending the game so he could focus on the response to the attack.  This was the President's answer:  [Video clip]

Obama's prisoner clemency plan faltering as cases pile up.  In April 2014, the administration of President Barack Obama announced the most ambitious clemency program in 40 years, inviting thousands of jailed drug offenders and other convicts to seek early release and urging lawyers across the country to take on their cases.  Nearly two years later the program is struggling under a deluge of unprocessed cases, sparking concern within the administration and among justice reform advocates over the fate of what was meant to be legacy-defining achievement for Obama.

Are We Ready for Reality after the Brussels Terror Attacks?  [Scroll down] Meanwhile, the current president is in Havana, posing in front of a mural of Che Guevara (a man who put his own friends in front of firing squads.  Doesn't Obama know?  I'm afraid he does) and agreeing with Raul Castro that America has an income inequality problem.  Doesn't Obama know that the great "revolutionary" Fidel is a billionaire?  How's that for income inequality in a horribly impoverished country?  I have been to Cuba, and except for the elites, every single citizen is in misery and being watched by the secret police.

Obama under fire for 'going to baseball games with the Castros' while Brussels burns.  Republicans are already criticizing President Obama for staying put in Cuba instead of coming home or flying to Belgium in the wake of the terrorist attacks this morning in Brussels.  All three GOP presidential candidates condemned the president's moves this morning [3/22/2016].  'President Obama is spending his time going to baseball games with the Castros,' said Sen. Ted Cruz, who is running for the Republican nomination for president, according to reporting from ABC News' Rick Klein.

Obama's gloating joke about replacing Justice Scalia on the Supreme Court that had a room full of governors laughing.  Conservatives expressed fury today [2/23/2016] that President Obama joked about the death of Anontin Scalia, the Supreme Court justice[.]  Addressing the National Governors Association at the White House yesterday, Obama talked about some of the downsides of being a lame duck.  'Some of you might be in the final year of your last term,' working as hard as you can to get as much done as possible for the folks that you represent:  fixing roads, educating our children, helping people retrain, appointing judges,' Obama uttered, adding a dramatic pause.  'The usual stuff.'

President Obama SNUBS Nancy Reagan's funeral so he can speak at hipster festival South By Southwest.  A White House official confirmed this afternoon that President Barack Obama will not be in attendance at former First Lady Nancy Reagan's funeral on Friday, instead opting to speak at a popular film and music festival in Texas. [...] In late February, Obama drew widespread criticism after skipping the funeral for conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

Obama Adds Nancy Reagan To His Growing List Of Funeral Snubs.  President Obama chose to skip the funeral of former first lady Nancy Reagan, opting instead to keynote a Texas hipster festival.  Given all the other funerals of leading conservatives and U.S. allies he's missed, the optics are not good.

Obama: I'm more worried about climate change than the Islamic State.  Priorities that are likely to come back and bite him.

Demeaning The Office.  With President Obama's public refusal to attend the funeral service for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, he demeans the office in a way that transcends politics and exposes him as a small man who never grew into his job.  There are a lot of perks when you're president.  Your every whim is catered to — a kitchen staff on call, butlers, Air Force One, access to the rich, powerful and famous, living in the White House, and so on.  With that lifestyle comes certain responsibilities.  The constitutional ones are obvious and enumerated.  Beyond those are duties inherent in the office which, although sometimes unpleasant, are no less important.  The most important intrinsic duty of the president is to represent the people of the United States, not in policy but in person.

Almost 90,000 dangerous illegal immigrants go free.  Nearly 60 percent of illegal immigrants identified by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as criminal threats are not deported and are eventually released, the latest example of the Obama administration's failed immigration policy.  Internal ICE figures show that in fiscal 2015, the agency encountered 152,393 illegal immigrants labeled a criminal threat, mostly in jails, but charged 64,116.  About another 88,000 were not processed for deportation, according to the Center for Immigration Studies' Jessica Vaughan.

Obama's rudeness hits new heights with Scalia, Schumer.  Donald Trump's policy of demeaning and snarking his political opponents has been a favorite habit of President Obama for the last eight years.  Obama is perhaps the first president who believes that leading the country and playing to the beliefs of the extremists in his own party amount to the same thing, and like Trump fans, Obama fans are motivated in large degree by sheer hatred.  They love to hear their idol channel their rage by bashing people they don't like.  Obama's latest, silent insult — leaving a spokesman to explain he had better things to do on a Saturday than attend the funeral of a 30-year justice of the Supreme Court — isn't surprising when you consider the mean-spirited things he says virtually every time he steps in front of a microphone.

President Obama Will Not Visit Guantánamo Bay Troops on Cuba Trip.  President Obama will not visit the troops stationed at Guantánamo Bay Naval Base as part of his coming trip to Cuba.  Mr. Obama has not once visited the base, which staffs thousands of U.S. service members, during his tenure as President.  He will, however, personally meet with Raul Castro and "various Cuban people," doing so from March 21-22.  Ben Rhodes, the President's Deputy National Security Advisor, discussed the President's coming trip, in which he will forgo American troops for the dictatorship in Havana.

Obama Spends Less Than 2 Minutes At Scalia's Wake.  President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama paid less than two minutes of respect to the late Antonin Scalia while the Justice lies in repose at the Supreme Court.  Friday [2/19/2016], the Obamas spent approximately 35 seconds in front of the casket and then approximately 67 seconds in front of the portrait of Scalia.

Italian-American community criticizes Obama for missing Scalia's funeral.  Members of the Italian-American community have joined in criticizing President Obama for not attending Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's funeral mass on Saturday [2/20/2016].  Justice Scalia was the first Italian American on the Supreme Court when he was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986.  Philip Fogalia, the vice president of the Italian-American museum, said Italian-Americans take paying respects at funerals 'very seriously'.

Obama to skip Scalia funeral draws boos from media.  A mix of left- and right-leaning media personalities cringed Wednesday afternoon [2/17/2016] after the White House announced President Obama would not attend Justice Antonin Scalia's funeral this weekend.  "This is pretty weak and kinda' classless of Obama," the Daily Beast's Noah Shachtman said on social media.  National Review's Tom Rogan added, "Unless this is at request of Scalia family, this is incomprehensibly absurd."

Here are Six Funerals the Obamas DID Attend.  [#3] Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV):  Despite Robert Byrd's well-known ties to the Ku Klux Klan, President Obama attended the Democratic senator's funeral.  Obama gave a speech at the ceremony and called the late senator his friend.  [#4] Reverend Clementa Pinckney:  Reverend Pinckney, who also served as a South Carolina state senator, was one of the nine people killed in the Charleston shooting last summer.  Despite never having met Pinckney, President Obama delivered his eulogy.

Obama faces backlash over prospect of missing Scalia funeral.  The White House is not confirming whether President Obama will attend the funeral Saturday for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, raising the possibility — and criticism — that he'll skip the service.  White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest revealed to reporters Wednesday [2/17/2016] that the president and first lady Michelle Obama plan to pay "respects" at the Supreme Court on Friday, where Scalia will lie in repose.  But as for Saturday's funeral, he said, "Vice President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden will attend."

Cruz blasts 'faithless' Obama for skipping Scalia's funeral.  Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Thursday [2/18/2016] called President Obama "lawless and faithless," blasting his decision to skip the late Justice Anontin Scalia's funeral.  "We've got 11 more months of watching damage to this country from a lawless and faithless president, who is eager to travel to Cuba but unwilling even to show up at the funeral of Justice Scalia," Cruz said in South Carolina, where he's campaigning ahead of Saturday's Republican primary.  Obama will pay his respects on Friday at the Supreme Court, where Scalia's body will lie in repose.  But Obama will not attend the funeral Saturday at the Basilica of the National Shrine.

White House Issues Statement in Reaction to Justice Scalia's Death While Obama Golfs.  President Obama was on the golf course this afternoon when the news broke that Justice Antonin Scalia had passed away.  He arrived at the renowned TPC Stadium Course golf course in La Quinta, California this afternoon [2/13/2016] at around noon pacific time with his three golfing partners Greg Orme, Bobby Titcomb, and Mike Ramos.  The president's golf games traditionally last 5-6 hours.

Obama to skip Scalia funeral.  President Barack Obama will not attend Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's funeral on Saturday [2/20/2016], the White House said, adding that Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden will be at the services.  Obama and first lady Michelle Obama instead will go to the Supreme Court on Friday "to pay their respects to Justice Scalia" while the justice lies in repose in the Great Hall, press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Wednesday [2/17/2016].

Obama snubs Scalia funeral: President will NOT attend requiem for conservative Supreme Court justice.  President Barack Obama will not attend conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's funeral on Saturday, the White House says. [...] It was not immediately clear why the president won't go to the formal funeral.  'I don't have a sense of what the president's plans are for Saturday,' Earnest said after a reporter suggested it would be bad form for him to go golfing, a favorite weekend activity of Obama's.

Obama saves his most dangerous betrayal for last.  It's now clear that despite escalating jihadi attacks and threats worldwide, nothing will dissuade President Obama from releasing or bringing in some of the world's most vicious Islamic killers.  Within 24 hours of the Islamic State attacks in Paris last November, Mr. Obama released five Yemeni detainees from Guantanamo Bay to the United Arab Emirates.  The timing, optics and dangerous reality of a terrorist release coming immediately after mass slaughter committed by their fellow jihadis-in-arms did not concern him.  After all, he's done it before.  Just a week after the jihadi massacre at Charlie Hebdo in Paris in January, he released five Taliban leaders from Guantanamo to Qatar, where they stayed in "luxurious" confinement until their release one year later.

Obama To Visit Mosque Tied To Terrorism (To Show Muslims Don't Support Terrorism).  In a good-will gesture to Muslims, whom he thinks are being unfairly linked to terrorism after San Bernardino, the president plans on Wednesday to visit a large mosque that merely validates the linkage he decries.  To promote "religious tolerance" for Muslims and Islam, Obama will make the first visit of his presidency to a U.S. mosque that happens to be controlled by a radical Muslim Brotherhood front group his own Justice Department has implicated in the largest terrorist fundraising plot in U.S. history.

14 Times Barack Obama's Rhetoric Made Politics Less Civil.  In his State of the Union address in January, President Barack Obama chided Republicans for using politically divisive rhetoric.  Ironically, or perhaps not so ironically, the president's own words towards politicians of a different stripe haven't always been so civil in the past.

Could Someone Please Send President Obama a Necktie?  In such matters as the death of a great man, respect matters — especially from our political leaders.  Dignity and sober ceremony are called for.  These are not trivial requirements, nor are they mere accessories to the event.  They are part of the bedrock of enlightened civilization.  Surely when America's president appeared before the TV cameras Saturday evening [2/13/2016] to deliver his scripted remarks about the death of a Supreme Court Justice, the great Antonin Scalia, Obama should have taken the trouble to dress at least as well as your average law student applying for a summer job.  Instead, flanked by the flags that signal ceremony, but dressed-down after a day on the golf course, the top button of his shirt undone, Obama appeared without a necktie.

US Turns to UN to Screen Refugees From Central America.  The Obama administration is planning to expand a program to let would-be migrants from Central America apply for refugee status before they attempt to come to the U.S., Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday [1/13/2016].  The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees will now conduct initial screenings to see whether migrants from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala may qualify as refugees eligible to come to the United States legally.

Obama Dealing Terror.  President Obama began releasing illegal aliens with criminal records from the early days of his presidency and well before the sequester that he used as an excuse for doing so.  Despite Obama's misrepresentation to the American people that these criminals were not dangerous, tens of thousands of illegal immigrants, many with violent criminal records, have been released from jail including illegals "charged with kidnapping, sexual assault, drug trafficking and homicide."  A House Judiciary Committee report revealed that between 2009-2011, the Obama administration released criminal illegal aliens who were later charged with 19 murders, three attempted murders and 142 sex crimes.  Kathryn Steinle's murder last summer by an illegal alien with seven prior felony convictions was inevitable.

Obama Goes After Petraeus Again To Send A Chicago-Style Message.  Books by former Obama insiders have convincingly documented this president's distrust of the U.S. military.  He's been goaded by Vice President Joe Biden's warnings not to be played by the guys in uniform.  That's a distrust shared by precious few Americans, who've elected commanders-in-chief with military experience every single time for 68 years but for two Democrat exceptions — Bill Clinton and the Suspicious One himself.  But going after retired Gen. David Petraeus a second time for national security indiscretions is a bridge too far.

As Obama Cries at the White House, US Special Ops are Trapped in Afghanistan.  In the town of Marjah, Afghanistan, near the Helmand Province, as many as 20 US Army special forces soldiers are trapped inside of a compound.  Surrounded by the Taliban and other Islamic terrorists, one soldier was killed and others were wounded.  Apparently, there has been some sort of evacuation for the dead and wounded, but there are still others on the ground engaged in combat.  One HH-60 helicopter was grounded due to damage and two others were sent to help with the rescue.  Meanwhile, at the White House, Obama was crying during his address to the public regarding his executive action on gun control today.  When is the last time Obama cried when addressing dead service members or the wounded?

Obama cries over guns, then frees more terrorists.  After President Obama cried while announcing a series of "commonsense executive actions" on gun control, his rare display of emotion stirred plenty of debate.  Would the steps he outlined have prevented any of the recent mass shootings?  Why is he circumventing Congress again?  Were his tears even real?  All good questions.  Yet here's another one that we ought to consider:  Why would someone cry over gun control and mass shootings while simultaneously freeing more terrorists?

Why Is Congress Bent On Early Release Of Thousands Of Criminals?  As a new annual homicide record is set in Baltimore, and Chicago has returned to the days of Capone with 11 murders in the first week of the new year, a bipartisan criminal justice reform measure would put a GOP rubber stamp on the release of thousands of major drug dealers back to the streets from which they were forcibly removed.  What could go wrong?  On top of this Republican-proposed release program, Obama is drastically increasing Justice Department staff to handle the expected increase in pardons and clemency that the president is expected to issue beyond the 40,000-plus convicts he began releasing in October.

Obama issues pardons, commutations.  Most of the commutations dealt with drug offenses, though the pardons involved counterfeiting and bank fraud.  Obama has now commuted the prison sentences of 184 people, surpassing the combined number of those granted by presidents Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush (117), the White House said in a statement.  Friday's [12/18/2015] list included 40 people serving life sentences.

Obama commutes sentences of 95, pardons 2 in year-end spree.  President Obama on Friday [12/18/2015] commuted the sentences of 95 prisoners and pardoned two more, part of a broader effort to rethink a criminal justice system that critics say has resulted in overly harsh and expensive sentences for thousands of drug offenders.

Obama puts a record 95 criminals back on the street.  President Obama on Friday granted Christmastime commutations to a record 95 federal prisoners — including 40 who had been serving life sentences, mostly for crack and cocaine crimes.  Almost all of those being freed are nonviolent drug offenders who behaved well in prison and who would have received shorter sentences under current rules, officials said. [...] With one year left in his presidency, Obama has now commuted the sentences of 184 prisoners, more than any president since Lyndon Johnson, who granted clemency to 226.

Now, Obama is releasing drug dealers as well as terrorists.  Barack Obama commuted the prison sentences of almost 100 federal felons, mostly drug dealers.  Which means they'll be back out on the street much sooner than judges and juries decided they should be.  In fact, since nearly half were serving life sentences, some for gun crimes, they're not supposed to be out on the streets ever.  There is, after all, a reason why crime's declined in recent years.  Because despite Obama's majority disapproval ratings, this Democrat still thinks he knows better than the people who twice elected him.

Do Not Disturb: Obama Enjoys Luau as Floods Devastate Midwest.  Obama continues his Hawaii vacation as planned, while 19 levees are at risk of being breached by record-setting flood waters in the continental U.S.

What's Actually in the Trans Pacific Partnership?  Here's a quick summary:
  •   A legislative body superior to Congress
  •   A vehicle to pass Obama's climate change treaty
  •   Increased legal immigration
  •   Reduced patent protection for U.S. pharmaceuticals
  •   Quotas on U.S. agricultural exports
  •   Increased currency manipulation
  •   Reduced U.S. power

Obama's Strategic Bumbling Is Theater of the Absurd.  By August 2014, Obama was grudgingly conceding he needed a new counterterrorism strategy.  One tactic he ruled out:  building up pro-American Syrian forces.  He told New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman that was an unworkable "fantasy."  Then, within weeks, the Islamic State beheaded American journalist James Foley.  On vacation in Martha's Vineyard, Obama denounced the murder.  Within eight minutes of that statement, he was on the golf course.

Obama Didn't Bomb ISIS Oil Because of the Environmental Impact.  Obama the Great is now concerned for ISIS and their precious oil supplies and the 'environment'. [...] I wish he believed in America like he believes in global warming and whatever crazy ideas he is coming up with on a daily basis.  Or at least cared as much as he did about golf.

Former CIA Director: We Didn't Hit ISIS Oil Wells to Avoid Environmental Damage.  Former CIA Director Mike Morell stated on Tuesday's Charlie Rose show that the Obama administration "seemed" to back off from bombing oil wells controlled by ISIS, at least in part because such strikes would cause "environmental damage."  [Video clip]  [...] We get it.  Obama cares more about the environment than crushing ISIS.

This would be the worst possible time to close Guantanamo.  The Obama administration's decision to send the Joint Special Operations Command into battle against the Islamic State is a small step toward getting rid of the counterproductive prohibition on "boots on the ground" — really a prohibition on U.S. troops going into combat — that has hindered attempts to defeat the terrorist state.  The Special Operations task force that apparently will be stationed in Irbil in northern Iraq will not, by itself, be a game-changer.  But it will be a real help, especially in gathering intelligence about the Islamic State.

Obama arrives late for 'moment of silence' for Paris attacks.  President Obama walked in late Sunday on a moment of silence being held by world leaders in Turkey to honor the victims of Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris.  Reporters traveling with the president said Mr. Obama had not yet arrived when other world leaders at the G-20 conference in Turkey began their silent observance around a large conference table.

Tilting at the elusive windmills.  France mourns its dead, and President Obama is getting ready to lead the heads of 196 nations into the city of light in pursuit of his climate change agenda.  Every man to his own idea of what's important.  Despite the manufactured hysteria over the weather, the production of energy is not the most dangerous work of humankind.  The most dangerous barbarians are those who are busy beating their plowshares into swords.  The average American gets that, even if the president doesn't.

Public Housing told not to Reject Criminals.  Coinciding with the mass release of federal inmates, the Obama administration is spending $1.7 million on a "re-entry program" to ease the transition from prison and ordering public housing facilities not to reject tenants with criminal records. [...] This is part of Obama's broader effort to reform the nation's criminal justice system as a way of ending racial discrimination.  Back in 2010 the president signed a measure that for the first time in decades relaxed drug-crime sentences he claimed discriminated against poor and minority offenders.  This severely weakened a decades-old law enacted during the infamous crack cocaine epidemic that ravaged urban communities nationwide in the 1980s.

After ISIS's Dance of Death Michelle Does the Conga.  The young people who went to Paris's La Bataclan concert hall last week went to party and dance.  The problem is that 89 of those that jammed into the Eagles of Death Metal concert ended up dead or missing.  A mere 72 hours later, in a stunning display of tactlessness and lack of decorum, at a White House hosted Broadway workshop Michelle Obama danced.  Tearing up the carpet in the East Room, the FLOTUS danced the Conga with the same enthusiasm she exhibited when boogieing to the "Uptown Funk" and churning out Bollywood moves on Diwali.  Casting 'Paris attack' sackcloth and ashes aside, Michelle invited 40 performing arts high school students to a festive event entitled "Broadway" at the White House, which will air on TLC on November 26.

Pentagon Farmed Out Its Coding to Russia.  The Pentagon was tipped off in 2011 by a longtime Army contractor that Russian computer programmers were helping to write computer software for sensitive U.S. military communications systems, setting in motion a four-year federal investigation that ended this week with a multimillion-dollar fine against two firms involved in the work.  The contractor, John C. Kingsley, said in court documents filed in the case that he discovered the Russians' role after he was appointed to run one of the firms in 2010.  He said the software they wrote had made it possible for the Pentagon's communications systems to be infected with viruses.

Obama Cracked Jokes While the Rest of the World Mourned.  The current American administration will go down in history as one of the most weak and unprofessional with no affinity for etiquette and good manners.

Why Did The U.S. Launch A Nuclear Missile That Would Be Visible From L.A. Without Any Warning?  Was the U.S. government trying to send a message to someone on Saturday night [11/7/2015]?  Just after sunset, an unarmed Trident II nuclear missile was fired from a ballistic missile submarine just off the coast of southern California that was later identified as the USS Kentucky.  It was the absolutely perfect time to attract the attention of millions of people living in the Los Angeles area. [...] I don't know about you, but I have a really bad feeling about what is ahead.  Our government is acting very irrationally, and both Russia and China are becoming very angry with us.

The Disturbing Reason For The Navy's Trident Missile Test.  Essentially, the military just issued a not-so-friendly reminder to China and Russia:  They are still the toughest kid on the block, and they are still fully capable of turning their enemies into radioactive dust at a moment's notice.  It's also the same sort of irresponsible and bellicose show of force that every dying empire gives in its final days.  It's a sign that our government can no longer dominate the planet by conventional means.  If they could, this nuclear display would be unnecessary.

Obama's Tragic Let 'em Out Fantasy.  It takes a lot more than marijuana or cocaine use to end up in federal prison.  But the truth didn't matter.  Mr. Obama's prison tour came amid the biggest delegitimation of law enforcement in recent memory.  Activists, politicians and the media have spent the past year broadcasting a daily message that the criminal-justice system is biased against blacks and insanely draconian.  The immediate trigger for this movement, known as Black Lives Matter, was a series of highly publicized deaths of black males at the hands of the police.  But the movement also builds on a long-standing discourse from the academic left about "mass incarceration," policing and race.

As Crime Spikes, Obama Pushes Police To 'De-Escalate' Arrests, Hand Out Ice Cream.  Even as violent crime spreads like wildfire across U.S. cities, President Obama advises police to "de-escalate" encounters with suspects and find "alternatives to arrest."  Spoken like a man with a protective detail.

Feds Send Man to Jail for Overfishing as 6,000 Drug Convicts are Freed.  These are embarrassing times for the nation's criminal justice system; as the Obama administration executes the nation's largest mass release of federal prisoners, it's sending a Long Island fisherman to jail for reeling in too many.

Now Background Checks Are Racist? Obama Steps Up Hug-A-Thug Crusade.  Seeing bigotry even in checkboxes, President Obama has issued an order banning employers from asking applicants for federal jobs if they have a criminal record.  His "Ban the Box" initiative bans common sense.

Mark Levin on Prison Reform: 'Obama Radicalizes Everything He Touches'.  During his nationally syndicated radio show Monday [11/2/2015], host Mark Levin commented on Barack Obama's weekly address on prison reform, saying that the president "radicalizes everything he touches."  He decides what criminal justice reform looks like," said Levin.  "And isn't it interesting, it deals almost exclusively with the drug issue — not taxes, not embezzlement, none of that stuff — the drug issue.  Because Obama radicalizes everything he touches."  [Audio clip]

If Bush were still president, this would be a huge story.  Imagine for a second that cancer-stricken children had been ejected from a park where they had been conducting a candlelight vigil because President Bush had been leaving the White House to attend a gala with Texas Republicans.  I daresay it would be a lead item on the Sunday morning interview shows, with TV news shows all day showing crying children and their outraged parents interviewed at length.  But the standards for Obama are quite different.

Justice Department about to free 6,000 prisoners, largest one-time release.  The Justice Department is set to release about 6,000 inmates early from prison — the largest ever one-time release of federal prisoners — in an effort to reduce overcrowding and provide relief to drug offenders who received harsh sentences over the past three decades.  The inmates from federal prisons nationwide will be set free by the department's Bureau of Prisons between Oct. 30 and Nov. 2.  Most of them will go to halfway houses and home confinement before being put on supervised release.

If He Goes, Censure Him.  Call the president's planned trip to the site of the Umpqua Community College shootings last week the straw that broke the camel's back, if you will.  But his announcement Monday evening that he was going to Roseburg, after prominent individuals including the publisher of the local newspaper had made it clear he was not welcome there as a result of his statements following the shootings, display a crass disregard for the wishes of the American people which must be met with some official response.

Obama ignores generals' advice on troop levels for unprecedented sixth time.  In the end, President Obama was forced to listen to his generals — not his political instincts — on Afghanistan troop levels, and he decided to split the difference.  Mr. Obama is keeping 5,500 troops in Afghanistan beyond his presidency, about half the strength recommended by his top general in-country.  It marks the sixth time he has rejected the advice of a ground commander on the force size in the long Iraq and Afghanistan wars.  Military experts call that streak unprecedented for a commander in chief.

Obama Staffers Party, Smoke Cuban Cigars on the Anniversary of Benghazi, 9/11 Terror Attacks.  Top Obama administration and White House officials partied away on the night of the anniversary of 9-11 and the Benghazi terror attack.  State Department senior communications adviser Marie Harf and White House national security adviser Ben Rhodes joined some friends Friday [9/11/2015] for a night of partying at the Blackfinn Saloon blocks from the White House.  Harf, who runs point on promoting President Obama's Iran nuclear deal, and Rhodes, a graduate of the New York University creative-writing program who falsely revised the administration's talking points to pin the Benghazi attack on a spontaneous response to a Youtube video, were in good spirits.

Vatican objects to White House invitation list for papal visit.  At practically the same time that Barack Obama has decided that the US has to shut its eyes to dissenters in Cuba suffering under the yoke of oppression by the Castros, he plans to offer a lesson in dissent to Pope Francis.  Obama has extended invitations for the pontiff's first state visit to transgender activists, a gay Episcopal bishop, and the leader of a group of nuns that want changes to Catholic teachings on abortion and euthanasia.  Needless to say, the Vatican is not pleased with this attempt to lecture Francis on catechesis, as longtime Vaticanista Francis X. Rocca reports for the Wall Street Journal: [...]

Rude or ignorant? The White House offends the pope.  Was Team Obama being rude or incompetent when it invited a collection of Catholic dissenters and other opponents of church teaching to the White House welcome for Pope Francis?  Perhaps the president's staff just bought the media myth that this pope has turned his back on two millennia of Catholic doctrine.  In fact — despite his raising of issues like climate change and economic inequality — the pope still affirms traditional teaching on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage.

Boehner condemns McKinley name change.  House Speaker John Boehner said he is "deeply disappointed" in President Obama's plan to rename Alaska's Mount McKinley "Mt. Denali," joining a chorus of Republican lawmakers, even though the change has roots in the Republican Party.  The peak, which is the tallest in North America, was named after the nation's 25th president and former Ohio governor, William McKinley, in 1896.  Boehner, from Ohio, joined other lawmakers from his state in condemning the move, which Obama announced Sunday [8/30/2015].

White House announces that Mount McKinley will now be called by its Alaskan name, Denali.  President Barack Obama will change the name of Mount McKinley, the top of which is the country's highest point, back to its traditional Alaskan title, Denali.  His administration announced the name change on Sunday [8/30/2015], citing the authority of the Department of the Interior, ahead of a trip to Alaska on Monday that will see him become the first sitting president to visit the state's Arctic.  Alaskans have long called the 20,320-foot mountain Denali, though pushes by its politicians to have the name changed have met with opposition from those in Ohio, the home state of the 25th president.

The Editor says...
Since Mr. Obama believes that the Interior Department can assign any name it wants to Mount McKinley, I am very surprised that its name wasn't changed to Mount Obama.

Renaming Mount McKinley Obama's Insult To Competence.  [Scroll down]  McKinley also opened the gates to America's rise as a global power by deciding to build the Panama Canal and by winning Cuba's freedom from Spain in the months-long Spanish-American War of 1898.  Favoring fiscal discipline and a gold standard, he brought years of economic prosperity to the U.S.  And he held a dim view of Prohibition, another "progressive" social policy hobbyhorse that failed miserably.  Moreover, in a policy right out of today's news pages, McKinley sent criminal immigrants back home — but without demonizing all immigrants.  And his cleanup following 1900's Storm of the Century in Galveston, Texas, which killed 10,000, was lauded for being both swift and highly competent.  It's yet another example of both the triumph of political correctness and the Obama administration's utter indifference to America's heritage.

Obama Carbon Regulations could leave Manatees out in the cold.  It's no secret the President's carbon regulations will force the premature retirement of coal-fired power plants across the U.S.  In fact the President seems wholly indifferent to the thousands of jobs and livelihoods he's destroying.  However what the President and EPA did not count on is that some of the power plants that will be shuttered are integral to the survival of hundreds of Florida manatees.  The issue stems from the fact that the warm-water discharge from some Florida coal-fired power plants, such as Florida's Big Bend Power Station, has become home to hundreds of West Indian manatees.  The manatees are drawn to the warm-water discharge for a nearly six-month period in the winter.

Obama Ignores V-J Day Remembrance.  Today in London, Queen Elizabeth II attended a memorial service at St. Martin-in-the-Fields church to commemorate the end of the war.  Also attending was Prime Minister David Cameron, who related to reporters the significance of remembering the sacrifice of the British soldiers who fought in World War II.  After the service ended, the Queen met and chatted with WWII veterans and former prisoners-of-war, now in their 90's.  And President Obama?  He appeared on a video to mark [...] the one-year-anniversary of the violence in Ferguson that followed the police shooting of Michael Brown.

Just in case you thought Hillary might be indicted, Obama spent the weekend socializing with her and Bill.  Not just socializing, I should note, but socializing in public, an implicit reminder to the DOJ and intelligence community that Hillary Clinton's prospects are important to him and his party.  When was the last time the subject of an FBI investigation that's on the front page of newspapers across the country got to party with the president the same week? [...] Who cares if there's an appearance of impropriety here?  What are you going to do, impeach him?

Obama Wants To Free More Felons, Give Them The Vote.  What timing. Since Trump and Steinle we are hearing daily reports about the crimes committed by criminals who have been released by the government.  And, of course, now there is the 'El Chapo' escape.  And yet Obama and Hillary want to release even more criminals upon the American public.

Obama Praises Move To Recognize Eid As An Official Holiday.  Keep in mind, he said this just after a Muslim killed four U.S. Marines and a sailor on American soil.

Yes, Beatrice, Obama Hates Our Military.  The White House has now reversed itself and ordered flags flown at half-mast — but not until after they refused to do so while the Capitol (and the States) did.  How much more do you need to see when five of our servicemembers are gunned down in an act of terrorism on our soil, potentiated by a government that refuses to recognize everyone's 2nd Amendment rights, including members of our military, and then goes even further by posting "gun free zone" signs on the door!  Oh, it doesn't stop there either. [...]

Current Obama Plan to Close Guantanamo Bay has One Tiny Flaw: It's Illegal.  Not that appears to have ever stopped this particular president. [...] Say, I've got an idea:  let's have Lois Lerner and John Koskinen do all the planning for this patently illegal operation and the cover-up which is sure to follow.

Obama's dangerous commutation that no one noticed.  In a Florida court in January of 1998, Harold Kenneth Herring was sentenced to life in prison on multiple felony charges, including possession of a controlled substance and conspiring to traffic in cocaine.  Later this month, he will walk out of prison at the age of 76, thanks to a commutation of his and 21 other sentences by President Obama in March. [...] While Herring might not be a danger to his community now at the age of 76, at one point in his life he was a very dangerous man — a convicted felon who still managed to get possession of an illegal gun.  Can we properly define criminals with guns as "nonviolent"?  Aren't those the very people we should want off the streets?

White House Celebrates Muslim Holiday on Day Muhammad Murders Four Marines.  President Barack Obama sent a celebratory message to Muslims around the world on the White House Twitter account nearly two hours before his first tweet on the subject of four dead Marines killed by an Islamic gunman.  "From my family to yours, Eid Mubarak!" -@POTUS to Muslims celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr," the White House tweeted.  This message was tweeted at 4:48 p.m. according to the White House Twitter feed.

Obama moves to reverse two decades of success in reducing crime.  Having empowered Iran's criminal regime and all but ensured its long-term survival, President Obama is turning his attention to doing what he can for American criminals.  In one day this week, he commuted the sentences of 46 criminals, the most presidential commutations in a single day since at least the administration of President Lyndon Johnson, according to the White House.  The president also took the time to write a personal letter to each of the 46 criminals.  He has not, however, contacted the family of Kathryn Steinle who was murdered in San Francisco by an illegal alien and convicted felon who was released from prison earlier this year.

WH Spox: President Celebrated ObamaCare Decision with High Fives, Hugs, Happy Dances.  Thursday [6/25/2015] on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports," White House communications director Jen Psaki said of the president's reaction to the Supreme Court upholding a key provision of ObamaCare was celebratory.

The Editor says...
How I miss the days when adults worked in the White House and maintained some semblance of decorum regardless of the circumstances.

Barack, Michelle Obama Allow Daughter Malia to Have Unsupervised Day With Known Child Molester.  President Obama and wife Michelle allowed eldest daughter, Malia, 17, to visit the set of the often x-rated HBO show "Girls" to spend time — alone — with self-admitted child rapist Lena Dunham this week.

Obama's Daughter Scores Internship With Notorious Sex Offender.  Do you think the Obamas are even aware of Lena Dunham's admitted offenses?  Or the fact she also made up a story about being raped?  Does any of this even matter to these people?

Obama Writes Personal Letters to 46 Felons; No Contact with Kathryn Steinle's Family.  Nearly two weeks after 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle was murdered on San Francisco's Pier 14 by an illegal alien and convicted felon who was released from prison earlier this year, President Barack Obama has failed to contact the victim's family or mention her in public.  Yet Obama took the time to write (and release) 46 personal letters this month to felons imprisoned for non-violent drug offenses whose sentences he has commuted.

Obama's Failure to Understand the Symbols of his Office.  I wonder what would happen if nine people were murdered in a church and a Republican president jetted out to the West Coast for four days of fundraising and golf.  Surely, the sensitivity police would have been brought out in force and locked down the nation's airwaves, commenting on the callousness of the president and the Neanderthal nature of Republicans in general.  But Obama returned Sunday night from four fundraisers and two rounds of golf without hearing a peep of protest, his devotion to government having pre-certified him as a caring, sensitive type and rendered him immune to suggestions otherwise.  But the parties, the constant golf, the extravagant and frequent vacationing do take a toll.

Obama: Unpunished in Press for Skipping Away from Tragedy for a Podcast, Fundraisers, and Golf.  In the wake of the Charleston church shooting, Republican candidates canceled events in South Carolina and altered their schedules.  President Obama did no such thing, jetting off to four California fundraisers, golfing in Palm Springs, and doing a leftist podcast with former Air America host Marc Maron in a garage. [...] The [Washington] Post isn't going to point out where Maron lands politically, because he's very liberal, and so are they.  His Air America show was called Morning Sedition, which is a play on the NPR morning news show Morning Edition.  But on Monday [6/22/2015], Post reporter Steven Mufson could only ooze Maron hosted an "extremely popular" podcast series.

Obama's Contradictory, Appalling New Hostage Policy.  President Obama Wednesday announced a new policy regarding U.S. hostages that is designed, albeit not purposely, to get more Americans kidnapped and killed.  The policy, in short, is that while the government still may not ransom hostages, private citizens can — even though it's against the law — and will be aided by the government in their "communications" with the terrorists.  Obama said as much during an appearance at the White House, and White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said it was only "likely" that the administration would at least try to dissuade families from paying ransoms and did not deny a reporter's statement that the government was giving its "tacit approval" to the practice.

Obama's Twitter photo crops out George, Laura Bush.  President Obama, to much fanfare, has finally created a Twitter account, but he decided to crop out the former president and first lady from his featured photograph.  The president picked a picture of himself (as always) at the 50th anniversary of the civil rights march in Selma, Ala.  The photo features the Obama family, Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon, and others walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.  But just off frame in the featured photo is George and Laura Bush.  The picture could easily have been expanded to include President No. 42, but wasn't.

President Obama Fundraises in Hollywood While Nation Grieves for Charleston.  President Obama on Thursday [6/18/2015] addressed the horrific massacre of nine people in a Charleston, South Carolina church — and then boarded Air Force One to California for a series of high-dollar fundraisers to benefit the Democrat party.  Obama is scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles early Thursday afternoon for a pair of pricey fundraisers to benefit the Democratic National Committee and the DNC's 2016 White House Victory Fund.

Obama expected to golf at water-guzzling Palm Springs links amid record drought.  President Obama is expected to spend the weekend golfing in the lush environs of Southern California's verdant desert resorts near Palm Springs — resorts that are among the state's top guzzlers of water.  If he does indeed hit the links, the outing would take place during California's record drought, on the heels of a Democratic fundraiser at the home of billionaire climate change activist Tom Steyer, and just days after Obama welcomed Pope Francis' encyclical warning about the dangers of human-caused climate change.

Obama uses the N-word in podcast interview.  President Barack Obama did not mince words in discussing race in a recent interview, going so far as to use the N-word in talking about America's complex racial history when speaking to Marc Maron on the comedian's "WTF" podcast in Los Angeles last week.

Feds' relocation of Somali refugees stresses Minn. welfare, raises terror fears.  The State Department has helped to relocate tens of thousands of refugees from the war-torn African nation of Somalia to Minnesota, where they can take advantage of some of America's most generous welfare and charity programs.  But the effort is having the unintended consequence of creating an enclave of immigrants with high unemployment that is both stressing the state's safety net and creating a rich pool of potential recruiting targets for Islamist terror groups.

The Editor says...
They're the best of both liberal worlds:  Freeloading foreigners who stay on welfare as they multiply, then turn into terrorists.  Thanks, Barry!

Obama's Chicago Presidency.  Obama has chosen to skip various widely attended anniversaries, including the liberation of Auschwitz and the Battle of Gettysburg.  He passed on the commemorative march of world leaders who condemned the terrorist killings in Paris.  Critics pounced.  How does the president have time to meet with GloZell, do his March Madness NCAA-tournament basketball picks, or banter with Internet bloggers if he cannot meet with the current chief of NATO?  Why does he jet out to California to do Jimmy Kimmel, but refuse to fly to Paris to show solidarity against Islamic violence?  Why would Obama fly all the way to Denmark to lobby for a Chicago Olympics, but not attend the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall? [...] The point is that it was his pleasure not to attend any of them.  The full Obama cares nothing about appearances.  Indeed, he feels that such disdain magnifies his godhead, as someone absolutely immune to tradition, protocol, and criticism.

Geraldo Defends Obama's BuzzFeed Video to a Very Disapproving Fox & Friends.  Fox & Friends was not happy to learn that President Barack Obama was filming a goofy BuzzFeed video, a promotion for the Affordable Care Act enrollment, on the same day he announced the death of U.S. hostage Kayla Mueller.  This played like a retread of last summer's "Obama golfed after speaking on James Foley" narrative that gave Fox News so much and asked so little in return.  But the morning troika had difficulty getting a rise out of Geraldo Rivera, a man curiously antiquated on social media lingo for someone so selfie-adept.  "The timing is horrible," Geraldo acknowledged.  "But I notice that he did get almost 6 million hits on the video. [...]"

The Editor says...
In Geraldo's shallow little world, monumentally poor judgment and needless degradation of the presidency doesn't matter as much as the collection of six million hits.

While Obama Plays with Selfie Stick for BuzzFeed, ISIS Closes In on U.S. Marines in Iraq.  One can debate all that went wrong in Iraq in the last five years, but there has been one constant in this equation that entire time:  the Americans have had the same commander in chief since 2010.

Obama's Childish Selfie Indulgence Diminishes Presidency.  As our narcissist in chief poses and preens with a selfie stick in a BuzzFeed video, the world comes apart at the seams and chaos reigns.  Have we ever had a less serious person in the White House?

Politico: Obama 'Drones on Like a Slow Leak from a Monster Truck Tire' in Vox Interview.  [Scroll down]  The YouTube interview with the woman who eats cereal from the bathtub wasn't any less silly than this fawning effort from Klein and Yglesias.  In the months leading up to the 2012 election, President Obama only granted interviews to local outlets or variety show hosts.  He was mocked for this by many Republicans but it turned out to have been a pretty sound strategy.  The casual voters who don't consume political news 24/7 are found watching talk shows, not cable news.  He doesn't need the votes now, yet he still is going for appearances with puppy-eyed hero worshipers.

Obama 'selfie stick' video: End of Western civilization or hip marketing?  BuzzFeed got President Obama to make a video.  In it he uses a hand-held camera extender known as a selfie stick, makes a "thanks, Obama" joke when his cookie won't fit in a glass of milk, and mugs in front of a strangely dirty mirror. [...] This isn't the first time the president has used an unusual video appearance (or debased himself, depending on your point of view) to promote ACA sign-ups.

Obama White House dithered for nearly a month before launching rescue.  The United Kingdom gave the Obama administration intelligence in June 2014 about where in Syria the ISIS terror army was holding its American captives, but the White House dithered and missed its opportunity to rescue them, according to a shocking report published Thursday [2/12/2015].  U.S. and British officials said the administration sat on the information for nearly a month before launching a military raid to recover American aid worker Kayla Mueller and journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.  By the time a rescue was mounted on July 4, 2014, the hostages had been moved.

'Fruit Loop' Obama's Peculiar Priorities.  Barack Obama is a man who painstakingly sets his priorities.  Take, for instance, the recent funerals of two NYPD officers who were shot in the head by a radical Islamist thug as they sat in their parked police cruiser.  Sadly, the president was not able to attend either Officer Ramos's or Liu's funeral.  However, while the Big Apple was steeped in unbearable heartache, with a heavy heart about being otherwise committed and under much emotional duress, a greatly shaken Obama and the first lady did manage to soothe their grief with a $1,000-a-couple dinner at the swanky Hawaiian Vintage Cave.

President Gumball.  As a little girl, I was always reminded by my mother that gum chewing was in poor taste.  She would recite this little ditty and it has stuck with me ever since.  It seems so apropos when watching the spectacle of our President-of-Poor-Manners as he gallivants the globe and chews gum at formal events.

Do ya think? Obama says ISIS 'appears only interested in death and destruction'.  Now, we all know by now Barack Hussein Obama prides himself on being cool and aloof.  Last summer when ISIS beheaded an American, Obama denounced it at a brief photo-op it, then played a long round of fist-bumping golf with pro athlete pals.  Obama skipped the funeral of the first U.S. general killed in combat in decades because he was on vacation. [...] No wonder we've never seen Obama donate blood.  He doesn't have any.  Or passion.  Or humanity.

Obama debases the presidency in sit-down interviews with YouTube celebrities.  In an effort at outreach to the large and growing Moron-American voting bloc, President Obama went to considerable trouble to conduct sit-down interviews with three YouTube celebrities at three specially constructed sets erected in the White House following his State of the Union address.  The event was also commemorated with (what else?) a selfie.

White House Officially Declared Laughingstock.  In what the White House no doubt concluded was a brilliant stunt that would allow President Obama to widely distribute his message unimpeded by tough questions and annoying follow ups, Obama aides enlisted three people who have built a large following on YouTube — that should have disqualified them right there — to grill the president[.]

Fox's Kurtz: Obama YouTube Interview Was 'Beneath the Dignity of the Office'.  President Obama did an interview earlier today [1/22/2015] with three very popular YouTube celebrities.  The press corps was somewhat flabbergasted by this, given the president's reticence to engage with them more.  Now, considering the three interviewers were all YouTube celebrities, they did actually throw some good questions the president's way.  But to Fox's Howard Kurtz, an interview with YouTubers felt "beneath the dignity of the office" of the presidency.

Obama Presidency Now Redolent Of A Banana Republic.  Yemen's government fell and Saudi Arabia's king died.  But President Obama busied himself with YouTube stars and some of the lowest characters on the Internet.  Is this our descent to a banana republic?

GloBama Goes Full Troll.  On Thursday [1/22/2015], President Barack Obama sat down with YouTube sensation GloZell Green — she of the bathing in Froot Loops and the cinnamon challenge — to discuss issues ranging from SportsCenter (Obama's favorite pastime) to the "po-po" (GloZell's terminology).  The same day, the White House announced that it would not be hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Netanyahu accepted an invitation from Speaker of the House John Boehner to address a joint session of Congress.  He's got a busy schedule, after all.

Obama Apparently Unaware of Past Mockery by Comedian Interviewing Him.  Three YouTube stars were chosen by Barack Obama to interview him.  One of them was comedian Glozell Green with whom your humble correspondent is quite familiar because I have been subscribing to her channel for years and enjoyed her videos, especially the ones in which she viciously but hilariously mocks Obama's blindly loyal supporters as well as his programs.  Apparently the White House vetters must have been unaware of such videos when Glozell Green was chosen for the interview.

Late-stage Obama suddenly wants to get along.  President Obama was slow to recognize the result of the 2014 election.  In November, immediately after Republicans seized control of the U.S. Senate and secured their largest majority in Congress since the 1920s, Obama responded at first by claiming that he had a mandate from non-voters.  He then proceeded to roll out some of his most ambitious autocratic governing actions yet on the issues of immigration and Cuban relations — this from a presidency already known for unilateral executive decisions on such important topics as war, health care, education, and union bargaining.  He did so, heedless of warnings that he was creating terrible precedents for future presidents to exploit and that he was poisoning his relations with the new Congress.

Obama mourns ESPN death, not general's.  President Obama immediately issued a statement upon the death of a sportscaster at ESPN over the weekend.  But when terrorists killed Army Major General Harold J. Greene in Kabul Afghanistan this summer, the commander-in-chief's silence was so loud that even the Washington Post noticed.

The Editor says...
The most obvious explanation is the most likely:  Obama spends all day watching ESPN, but he probably had never heard of General Greene.

Krauthammer: Obama Saying No Nation Should Dominate Another "Single Stupidest Remark" Uttered By A President.  ["]Let me remind you of the first grade speech that Obama made about foreign policy.  He was at the U.N. in 2009 and he actually said no nation can or should dominate another.  Without a doubt the single stupidest remark about foreign policy ever uttered by a president of the United States.  He continues to say no balance of power can ever endure and he went on to say that no alliance based on the divisions of the Cold War, the obsolete divisions of the Cold War, makes any sense in this century.["]

Krauthammer: This is the Stupidest Line Ever Uttered by a US President.  [Video clip]

Soldiers Relocate Wedding to Accommodate Obama's Golf Game.  Natalie Heimel and her fiancé, Edward Mallue Jr., a pair of captains in the Army, were walking from their wedding rehearsal on Saturday [12/27/2014] at the 16th tee box at Kaneohe Klipper Golf Course in Hawaii when they were informed they'd have to move their wedding, scheduled for the next day.  President Barack Obama wanted to play through.

CNN's Chris Moody: Optics of Obama Forcing Army Couple to Move Wedding 'Hilariously Bad'.  On Monday afternoon [12/29/2014], CNN's Wolf covered the controversy surrounding President Obama's playing of golf on a Hawaii golf course that forced an Army couple about to be married there to move their wedding during which CNN's Chris Moody called the optics of the move "hilariously bad."  Following a panel discussion on the 2016 presidential campaign, substitute host Brianna Keilar introduced the topic and after some background on what happened, Keilar and Time's Zeke Miller did their best to defend the President and the White House, pointing out that there was "no way that the President" or the White House knew of this decision beforehand by the golf course. [Video clip]

Obama kicks Army wedding off Hawaii golf course so he can play.  Natalie Heimel and fiancé Edward Mallue Jr. were scheduled to marry at the Marine Corps Base Hawaii golf course Sunday.  Unfortunately, the couple was informed during their wedding rehearsal Saturday — just one day before the ceremony — that they would have to move their wedding because Obama wanted to play golf.

White House Photog Says Obama Not 'Disrespecting Office' with Feet Up.  White House photographer Pete Souza released his top photos of 2014 — with extended captions to explain why President Obama has his feet up on the coffee table and why it looks like staffers are bowing to the commander in chief.

Obama Golfs After Receiving Word of NYPD Shooting.  President Barack Obama was briefed on the ambush killing of two NYPD cops while on the golf course in Hawaii this afternoon [12/20/2014], according to the White House press pool report.

Obama calls NYPD commissioner from Hawaii [...] before heading straight to the golf course.  The White House said Sunday [12/21/2014] that the president called New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton — but not [Mayor] de Blasio — during the Obama family's extended Hawaii vacation to offer 'his full support for any possible assistance in the days and weeks ahead.'  The president then left his vacation home to play golf.

'Patient Dialogue'?  Well, at least he didn't say police "acted stupidly."  But President Obama's call for "patient dialogue" in the aftermath of the premeditated, cold-blooded murder of NYPD Officers Wenjian Lu and Rafael Ramos is maddening.  Dialogue is an exchange that takes place when there are competing points of view and it is reasonable to believe that both of them may have a point.  Does the president really think there are two sides to this story?

At Christmastime, George W. Bush was Santa, Obama is Scrooge.  Every year, in the week between Christmas and New Year's, I think about George W. Bush.  It was in that week each year for the eight years I covered him as a reporter that he gave me a spectacular gift — and he knew it.

Obama will not submit to an interview if there is any possibility of having to answer tough questions without a teleprompter.
Hard-hitting: Obama goes to Ryan Seacrest, ESPN to pitch Obamacare.  President Obama is taking this year's pitch for Obamacare to a couple of friendly media pals, Ryan Seacrest and ESPN.  According to the White House pool, he will be interviewed by them today as he pushes for more people to sign up for the health insurance program by Dec. 15.  On ESPN, he is expected to talk about the move by teams to support protesters of recent grand jury decisions not to indict police in the shooting of blacks.

Coburn: Expanding park service a 'disastrous idea'.  A federal lands package tucked into Congress' annual defense policy bill has sparked a larger debate over the government's role as a landlord.  The package, which was approved with broad bipartisan support Friday as part of the 2015 Defense Authorization Bill, designates 250,000 acres of new federal wilderness, in addition to 15 new national park units or expansions and three new wild and scenic river designations.  The provisions also include transferring management of a 140-square-mile national preserve in northern New Mexico to the National Park Service and making a land swap in Arizona that would clear the way for a disputed copper mine.

Obama commutes sentences for 8 drug inmates and pardons a dozen more federal convicts.  President Barack Obama on Wednesday [12/17/2014] cut short prison time for eight drug convicts and issued pardons to twelve other federal offenders in a move designed to draw attention to his objections to mandatory-minimum drug sentencing.

A Turning Point?  Now that the President is seeking to "normalize" relations with the Communist hell hole of Cuba, is there any totalitarian enemy of the United States that he has not sought to cozy up to?  Russia? check.  Hillary hit the reset button years ago, remember?  Iran? absolutely:  what more could Obama do to assure that Iran becomes a nuclear power?  China?  Obama made a special trip there to agree that the United States to hamstring its economy by adopting emissions standards that China wouldn't have to adopt for decades.

Boehner: House will act to stop Obama on immigration.  Speaker John Boehner vowed Friday that the House would act to stop President Obama's executive action on immigration, saying it was "damaging the presidency."  "With this action, the president has chosen to deliberately sabotage any chance of enacting bipartisan reforms that he claims to seek," Boehner said in a news conference at the Capitol.  "And as I told the president yesterday, he's damaging the presidency itself."

Major blowback from Obama's insult to Australia at the G20 in Brisbane.  Barack Obama has managed to damage the formerly close relationship between the United States and Australia, a cornerstone of our presence in the Pacific.  Unless you read American Thinker, you probably don't know about the fuss created when President Obama stuck his nose in Australian domestic politics and insulted that ally during his closing remarks at the G20 Summit in Brisbane last week.

He had better things to do?  Like what?
Obama Did Not Watch St. Louis County Prosecutor's Announcement.  CBS News reports that Obama did not watch St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch's announcement, but his aides did and briefed him.

Obama's Tradition Of Fanning The Flames Of Racial Discord.  On Wednesday [12/3/2014], President Obama laughably claimed that he has "a tradition" of not interfering in controversial cases before they are resolved.  "My tradition is not to remark on cases where there may still be an investigation," he said to guffaws all across the nation.  That may have been true for his predecessors, but it certainly is not true for him.  Whether it was Skip Gates, Trayvon Martin, or Michael Brown, the Community Organizer in Chief made a point of very inappropriately weighing in while the investigation was ongoing.

Keywords: cad, lout, oaf, uncouth.
Gum-chewing, limo-eschewing Obama riles some Chinese.  Obama emerged from his car chewing gum; he's a well-known user of Nicorette, the smoking-cessation gum.  But Chinese Internet users, accustomed to the highly formal standards of their stiff party leadership, quickly characterized the leader of the world's most powerful nation as an impolite "idler," or careless "rapper."  "We made this meeting so luxurious, with singing and dancing, but see Obama, stepping out of his car chewing gum like an idler," wrote Yin Hong, a professor of journalism at Beijing's Tsinghua University, on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo micro-blog service.

President Obama Spotted Chewing Gum Again While Abroad.  It seems President Obama didn't learn his lesson after the outrage in Beijing earlier this week over his gum chewing at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.  As the G20 summit got underway in Brisbane today, the president was once again spotted smacking gum as he chatted with British Prime Minister David Cameron at the first plenary session.

The Editor says...
I suspect that Mr. Obama is a hopelessly addicted smoker, and I further suspect that he is chewing nicotine gum continually while he is away from the White House, because there is no place to go smoke privately.  But even if he needs a nicotine fix, it's still inexcusably crass to chew gum in public when you're overseas representing an entire country.

Ebola and Obama.  There was a time when an outbreak of a deadly disease overseas would bring virtually unanimous agreement that our top priority should be to keep it overseas.  Yet Barack Obama has refused to bar entry to the United States by people from countries where the Ebola epidemic rages, as Britain has done.  The reason?  Refusing to let people with Ebola enter the United States would conflict with the goal of fighting the disease.  In other words, the safety of the American people takes second place to the goal of helping people overseas.

Returning To Peace Through Strength.  Less than three weeks from election day, the nation faces threats as dangerous and more diverse than September 11, 2001.  This predicament can be directly traced to the misguided, reckless, and naive policies of the Obama administration.  The threat of ISIS arose from President Obama's abandonment of Iraq.  In the vacuum that his own military leadership warned him of, ISIS seized much of Iraq and moved into Syria.  Americans are all too familiar now with ISIS' barbarity in the form savage beheadings paraded over the internet.  Compounded by gross negligence at the nation's borders and immigration policies imposed by fiat from the administration that subvert the will of the people, Americans find themselves facing everything from the prospect of terrorists entering the nation illegally, to the spread of Ebola in the United States from foreign travelers.

The dumbest move yet on Iran?  The news media broke (or were given) the story that President Obama penned a letter to Iran's Supreme Leader: [...] Writing one letter , let alone four, is among the dumbest moves in a foreign policy with far too many blunders in it already.  Even worse, Obama seemed to be suggesting just the sort of alliance critics have suspected was his objective all along and which will certainly terrify Israel and our Sunni allies.

Obama Invites Indian Leader to Dinner While He Is Observing Religious Fast.  The Obama administration was grilled on Monday [9/29/2014] for inviting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a state dinner while he is fasting as part of a Hindu religious observance, a move that has been criticized by some as insensitive.  Obama will host Modi Monday evening at the White House "for a private dinner" that will also be attended by Vice President Joe Biden, the White House announced Monday morning.  The event is closed to the press.  However, the administration appears to have forgotten that Modi is in the middle of carrying out a religious fast in observance of the Hindu navratri, in which the faithful abstain from food, according to reports.

What Is With Our President?  Granted, we don't want our president panicking on camera when ominous news strikes.  But even his defenders would have to admit that Obama increasingly offers strangely muted, disconnected, or listless responses to frightening news developments.  The day the plane was shot down over Ukraine, he offered some pro-forma comments before his well-worn infrastructure speech, then continued on to his scheduled fundraisers.  He went to Texas for a series of fundraisers but refused to visit the border at the height of the humanitarian crisis of unattended children entering the United States.  He denounced the beheading of an American, then immediately headed off to the golf course.

Sen. Ayotte: Obama Only Attacking ISIS to Help Dems in Midterm.  Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) told Fox News Sunday [10/5/2014] that she worried President Barack Obama was only confronting ISIS to help Democrats in the upcoming midterms, and that he would ease up on the Sunni militants after the election.  "I think we have a problem where the president's foreign policy is being trapped by his campaign rhetoric," Ayotte said.  "I'm very fearful as we look at the current military strategy that it is surrounding the November elections, and he won't have the resolve to follow through with what needs to be done in a sustained effort to destroy ISIS."

Obama uses coffee cup to salute Marines.  President Barack Obama returned a formal military salute with a one-handed coffee-cup salute Tuesday [9/23/2014], only a few hours after he dispatched the nation's military on their attack mission into northern Syria. [...] The salute is "the most important of all military courtesies," says a manual for Marine Corps officer candidates.

Commander-in-chief sparks anger by saluting US Marines with drink in his hand.  President Barack Obama saluted a pair of United States Marines on Tuesday [9/23/2014] while holding what appeared to be a styrofoam cup in his saluting hand, a breach of military regulations that won't win him fans among veterans and servicemen.  Obama is known for drinking tea, not coffee, when he travels, especially before delivering speeches.  His quasi-saluting gesture was an instant embarrassment for the White House, and not because his environmentally taboo drinkware clashed with the green-policy speech he was on his way to deliver at a UN Climate Summit.

Obama Salutes Marine Guard with a Coffee Cup.  President Obama today [9/23/2014] saluted his Marine Corps guard with a coffee cup as he descended to stairs of his Marine One chopper after landing in New York City.  The White House, either not caring about or not understanding the show of disrespect, actually posted video of the moment on Instagram.  [Video clip]

Obama's slovenly salute says more than he'd like.  Every modern president since Truman has had military (and saluting) experience — except two Democrats.  And both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have had trouble with the salute.  Clinton because his first-term salutes were sloppy and awkward.  And Obama because preoccupied with himself he has on occasion neglected to return the salutes offered by presidential Marine guards as a sign of respect for the office, not the individual.

Will Obama Cancel DNC Fundraiser in Wake of Heartland Beheading?  Earlier this month, Obama told NBC News he regretted the "optics" surrounding his decision to go golfing just minutes after making a speech about the beheading of another American, journalist James Foley, who was beheaded by ISIS terrorists.

The Barbarians Within Our Gates.  With his decision to use force against the violent extremists of the Islamic State, President Obama is doing more than to knowingly enter a quagmire.  He is doing more than play with the fates of two half-broken countries — Iraq and Syria — whose societies were gutted long before the Americans appeared on the horizon.  Obama is stepping once again — and with understandably great reluctance — into the chaos of an entire civilization that has broken down

Retired Head Of Marine Corps: Obama's ISIS Strategy Doesn't Have 'A [...] Chance [...] Of Succeeding'.  The man who was the top Marine general from 2006 until his retirement in 2010 says President Barack Obama's strategy to defeat the terrorist group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is doomed to fail.  "I don't think the president's plan has a snowball's chance in hell of succeeding," retired Marine General James Conway, who served as the 34th Commandant of the Marine Corps during the end of the Bush administration and the beginning of the Obama administration, said at the Maverick PAC Conference in Washington, D.C. Friday, according to a source in attendance.

Obama's ISIS Strategy Will Be His Jimmy Carter Moment.  The Obama administration is now so tongue-tied it can't tell us what it is about to do in the Middle East.  So let's pitch in:  The Obama administration is going to war in Iraq and Syria.  Having settled that, the arithmetic is simple:  This is the third war against Islamic jihadists Washington has waged in a little more than 10 years, and its Washington's third big mistake.

Obama's bungling alters midterms at 11th hour.  While Barack Obama was playing his 190th round of golf as president, chilling out on Martha's Vineyard for a 15-day vacation at a $12 million mansion, the U.S. electorate began to change — fast. [...] The president's spectacular incompetence in fixing the U.S. economy had been on full view for more than five years, but Americans were only now getting a glimpse of his disastrous foreign policy skills.

Obama vs. the generals.  Pity poor Gen. Lloyd Austin, top commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East.  Rarely has a U.S. general given his commander in chief better military advice, only to see it repeatedly rejected.  In 2010, Gen. Austin advised President Obama against withdrawing all U.S. forces from Iraq, recommending that the president instead leave 24,000 U.S. troops (down from 45,000) to secure the military gains made in the surge and prevent a terrorist resurgence.  Had Obama listened to Austin's counsel, the rise of the Islamic State could have been stopped.

Obama Declines to Attend Memorial Dedication for Disabled Veterans.  The American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial (AVDLM), the first such memorial of its kind, is set to be dedicated during a ceremony on Oct. 5 near the National Mall in downtown Washington, D.C.  However, Obama, who was first invited to attend the event in January, will not be among those in attendance, according to a source who is familiar with the situation.  This would be among the first national memorials in recent history not to be formally accepted in person by a sitting U.S. president.

A foreign policy conducted in a drug-addled haze.  See, kids, this is why you don't do drugs.  And this is why you will always eventually regret voting for somebody who boasted of all the coke and dope he did while smoldering about his absentee father.  President Choom Gang has demilitarized our military.  He sends the Department of Health and Human Services to the Mexican border to welcome and take care of tens of thousands of illegal children streaming across.  And now he wants to deploy American troops into West Africa to combat the Ebola virus.

The stupidity of 'don't do stupid stuff'.  In 2011, against the advice of generals who urged a residual force of 23,000, Obama pulled all of his forces out of Iraq, [...] Soon after, he refused — against the advice of Hillary Clinton, Leon Panetta, and David Petraeus — to arm and equip pro-western rebels in Syria, ensuring therein that President Bashar Assad would keep power, and creating a vacuum into which sinister forces would flow.  The two came together in 2013, when radical forces from Syria rolled into a weakened Iraq, raping and killing, and wiping out Christians en masse.  Mistake number three was when Obama blew off repeated reports of this rampage, dismissed the fall of Fallujah and Mosul as in any way serious, coming alive only when ISIS's threat to the Kurdish capital city blasted him out of his reveries.  By that time there had been hundreds of rapes, many beheadings, and hundreds of thousands were dead.

Tardy Obama talks tough on ISIS. But can anyone really believe him?  In an interview last weekend Obama told NBC's Chuck Todd that the art of political theater does not come naturally to him.  How can we say this politely?  That's barnyard excrement.  He simply doesn't care about awful optics.  From Day One, the Obamas partied with celeb pals during the height of unemployment.  When thousands of Americans were losing their homes, Obama's White House made do with only 54 Christmas trees.  He's urged Americans to vacation on the recovering Gulf Coast and then taken himself and entire family elsewhere.  He expressed profound sadness and prayerful solidarity with the family of a beheaded American journalist but not enough to prevent another golf game minutes later.  The four Benghazi bodies were not yet cold before Obama was off to glad-hand donors in Vegas.

Golf Is Not the Answer.  Immediately after his telephone call consoling the Foley family on their son's grisly murder at the hands of Islamofascists, President Barack Obama took a powder.  He headed for the golf course.  Yes, the golf course!  He had golfed eight times in eleven days, as the world was in tumult the likes of which we have not experienced since the late 1930s.  There is something very odd about this man.  He seems to think he can duck his obligations by lolling on the golf course.  Does he believe no one is looking?

Obama: 'Should Have Anticipated the Optics' of Golfing after Foley Statement.  President Barack Obama told Meet the Press host Chuck Todd Sunday morning [9/7/2014] that he should have anticipated the negative press from his rounds of golf, especially following his statement on the death of freelance American journalist James Foley.  "You know, it is always a challenge when you're supposed to be on vacation, because you're followed everywhere," Obama said.

Obama on golfing optics: Part of my job is 'theater'.  President Obama said he was near tears while talking to the parents of slain U.S. journalist James Foley, and he appeared to express some misgivings about his decision to play golf minutes after delivering an angry public statement about Foley's killing in Syria three weeks ago.  "I should've anticipated the optics," Obama said in an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" set to air Sunday [9/7/2014].  "Part of this job is also the theater of it," Obama said, adding that "it's not something that always comes naturally to me.  But it matters."

Last ditch attempt to rescue hostages from terrorists was crippled by 'dithering' Obama.  US commandos started to plan the mission in June, calculating that they could land in Syria, kill the terrorists and evacuate the hostages in 20 minutes.  But the mission was 'crippled,' according to The Wall Street Journal, when aides to President Obama said he would not approve surveillance flights over Syria to confirm the hostages' location.

When Barry Gets Blue.  The British press has mocked President Obama's golf game immediately following his statement on the beheading of James Foley.  The Daily Mail story includes a photo of Obama giving a fist bump for the ages. [...] But it's not just the British press.  The New York Daily News captured the reaction of sentient Americans with its "Bam's golf war" cover.

Even Obama's Defenders Can't Explain Obama's Golfing Decision.  A story in the New York Times this morning reveals that even the White House isn't sure how to explain President Obama's decision to golf immediately after his press conference denouncing Islamic State terrorists for beheading American journalist James Foley.

WH Snubbed US General and Margaret Thatcher's Funerals, Sending 3 Officials to Michael Brown's.  The Obama administration announced this weekend that it will be sending not one, but three, officials to attend the funeral of Michael Brown on Monday. [...] The decision would be highly questionable as is, but when compared to the White House's presence at, say, the funerals of Maj. Gen. Harold Greene or British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, it's deplorable.

Report: Obama Delayed James Foley Rescue a Month, Fretting over His Image and Golfing.  According to a new Sunday Times report by Toby Harden, "Pentagon sources said Foley and the others might well have been rescued but Obama, concerned about the ramifications of US troops being killed or captured in Syria, took too long to authorise the mission."  It's claimed that Obama was concerned about his administration being Carterized had the mission failed.

Obama lands in the rough among critics over second day of golf.  The Putterer-in-Chief played golf again Thursday on ritzy Martha's Vineyard, a day after he raised eyebrows by seguing seamlessly from a statement on the terrorist butchery of ISIS to the links.  "It's bad because perception is very important in foreign affairs," Laura Ingraham, the conservative talk radio host, said in an email.  "Same reason it was important not to pose for a selfie at Mandela's funeral.  It all conveys a lack of seriousness and maturity."

Also posted under Obama is lazy.

White House defends Obama playing golf.  The White House suggested Friday that President Barack Obama was trying to work out his tensions when he played 18 holes of golf on Wednesday — complete with grins and fist-bumps — immediately after delivering a brief but moving speech condemning the gruesome execution of American photojournalist James Foley.  And adding to the week of optics problems, Secretary of State John Kerry was spotted sailing off the island of Nantucket while the Pentagon and White House answered tough questions about the Middle East.

White House: That round of golf after the Foley video was released doesn't show the depth of Obama's grief.  Obama shouldn't (and won't) give in to ISIS's demands to stop the bombing in order to spare Sotloff's life but "fore" is not the proper response when you're given an ultimatum that involves a man's head being sawed off.  And of course it reinforced the perception that this guy simply doesn't much like his job anymore.  If watching jihadis decapitate an American citizen isn't enough to interrupt your recreation, what is?

Obama's 'Post Foley' Golf Game.  What I should also be writing about this day is the remarkable strength and grace we witnessed while watching the parents of James Foley who were nothing short of stunning and inspirational in their televised conversation with the press.  Instead, I find myself compelled to write about the President's decision to keep his scheduled golf date with a couple of friends immediately following his televised comments — a decision that revealed a complete lack of class on Mr. Obama's part.

Obama tees off just 24 hours after being criticized.  The president drew fire Wednesday [8/20/2014] after reacting to [James] Foley's on-camera slaying for just five minutes, and then gripping his driver.  He had told a global audience minutes earlier that 'when people harm Americans, anywhere, we do what's necessary to see that justice is done.'  Then he was seen laughing with friends and fist-bumping them during a five-hour round at Farm Neck on Martha's Vineyard.

Obama's golf outing after Foley beheading was a huge mistake.  Sometimes a round of golf is just a round of golf.  And sometimes it reveals the essence of a man.  President Obama's decision to hit the links and yuk it up with pals immediately after speaking about the beheading of James Foley was no ordinary mistake.  Nor was it a simple gaffe.  The decision continues to cause an uproar because, like an X-ray, there is no escaping the image. [...] With even his media praetorian guard appalled, the golf outing is sparking a wider understanding that Obama is hollow, empty of the routine qualities Americans expect from their president.

Furious reactions to Obama's joyful 5-hour golf game overshadow his 5-minute ISIS speech.  President Barack Obama reacted to the on-camera slaying of photojournalist James Foley for five minutes on Wednesday [8/20/2014], telling a global audience that 'when people harm Americans, anywhere, we do what's necessary to see that justice is done.'  Almost immediately after leaving the podium Obama teed-off and was seen laughing with friends and fist-bumping them during a five-hour round at Farm Neck Golf Course on Martha's Vineyard — his seventh 18-holes in ten days.  The decision brought a chorus of condemnation from TV commentators, journalists, conservative partisans and Twitter users.

Obama's duty to act.  Americans can only pray that President Obama was as serious as a drone strike when he vowed the United States would "see that justice is done" for the beheading of American journalist James Foley.  While his anger was palpable, Obama's resolve to rain death on the savages of ISIS was far from clear.  Worse, he signaled disdain for the gravity of the moment by going from the presidential podium straight to a vacation round of golf.

1,461 Days of Summer.  The headline was brutal. "Bam's Golf War: Prez tees off as Foley's parents grieve," read the cover of Thursday's [8/21/2014] New York Daily News.  Obama's gaffe was this:  He had denounced the beheading of James Foley from a vacation spot in Martha's Vineyard, then went to the golf course.  Seems like he had a great time.  Such a great time that he returned to the Farm Neck Golf Club — sorry, membership is full — the next day.  Technically, Obama's vacation began on August 9.  It is scheduled to end on Sunday, August 24.  With the exception of a two-day interlude in D.C., it has been two weeks of golf, jazz, biking, beach going, dining out, celebrating, and sniping from critics, not all of them conservative, who are unnerved by the president taking time off at a moment of peril.

DHS broke law in releasing hundreds of criminal aliens: Audit.  The Obama administration broke the law when it released thousands of illegal immigrants, more than 600 of whom had criminal records, last February as a result of poor planning and micromanagement from Washington, according to an internal audit released Tuesday [8/12/2014] that says things have not improved in the 18 months since.  Compounding matters, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) gave bad information to Congress, initially blaming the looming budget sequester, rather than the agency's own budget pressures, the Homeland Security inspector general concluded.

Watchdog: 600-plus 'criminal' illegal immigrants released amid 2013 budget cuts.  More than 600 illegal immigrants with criminal convictions were released by federal authorities in early 2013 in advance of the "sequester" budget cuts, according to a government watchdog report obtained by FoxNews.com.  The report by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General showed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement released "criminal aliens" from jails all over the country as part of a wave of releases in February 2013.  The agency came under fire at the time for the decision, which critics described as politically motivated and dangerous.

'When people are dying, you must come back from vacation': French foreign minister seems to slam Obama.  French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has a message about Iraq for Barack Obama:  Get back to the White House and do something. [...] Full-time workers in France are guaranteed a whopping five weeks of paid vacation every year, making his plea all the more urgent.  Obama is on a family and golfing holiday in a ritzy neighborhood of Martha's Vineyard but says he will come back to Washington this weekend before returning on Tuesday [8/12/2014] to fun, sun, and more golf.

Viral pic of Obama dancing while Ferguson burned removed by photographer.  A picture of President Obama dancing at a party in Martha's Vineyard at the exact moment that police and protestors were confronting each other in Ferguson, MO has been deleted from the photographer's Instagram account.

ABC: Semi-retired president "entirely unconcerned" by optics of playing golf while Iraq melts down.  On the one hand, by his own admission, what's happening in northern Iraq is genocidal in intent.  On the other hand, Farm Neck sure is a sweet course.  Dilemmas, dilemmas.  He did authorize military action before hitting the links, but then so did Bush and that didn't spare him from lefty mockery for years afterward — and Bush quit the game in 2003 because he felt it sent "the wrong signal" when bombs were falling.

Obama vacations as the world burns.  Obama stood on the South Lawn on Saturday [8/9/2014] updating Americans on the new bombing campaign in Iraq — and then he boarded Marine One for a two-week trip to Martha's Vineyard.  There, half an hour after arriving at his vacation home, he was already on his way to a golf course.  He played again Sunday, then had a beach outing Monday followed by a political fundraiser.  Even presidents need down time, and Obama can handle his commander-in-chief duties wherever he is.  But his decision to proceed with his getaway just 36 hours after announcing the military action in Iraq risks fueling the impression that he is detached as the world burns.

The war Obama didn't end.  What is happening in Iraq is exactly what we fought to prevent with the surge in 2007 and 2008.  It is heartbreaking commentary on President Obama's recklessness that we are now in an arguably worse position, with fewer options to reverse it.  He never ended the Iraq War, as he so proudly said.  He only abandoned it.

Karl: Obama W.H. 'Entirely Unconcerned' by Optics of Golfing During Crises.  ABC's Jon Karl reported Sunday that the Obama White House is "entirely unconcerned" about the optics of President Obama playing golf during the ongoing foreign policy crises.  "They are entirely unconcerned about it because their boss is entirely unconcerned about it.  Even if they were [concerned] there isn't anything they could do about it.  He likes to get out and play golf.  It was pretty remarkable, he got here [Martha's Vineyard] and on the golf course in almost record time.  I think we were on the island about an hour by the time he was already hitting off the first tee," Karl said on Good Morning America.

ABC and NBC Use False Talking Points to Counter Criticism of Obama's Vacation.  Eager to defend President Obama from criticism of his vacation in Martha's Vineyard amid multiple international crises, both Sunday's [8/10/2014] ABC Good Morning America and Monday's NBC Today used false spin to downplay the bad optics.  On GMA, co-host Dan Harris tried to deflect from Obama's time on the golf course by claiming that "George W. Bush played his fair share of golf during the Iraq war as well," an assertion that NewsBusters' Mark Finkelstein promptly disproved.

Obama to jet off on two-week Martha's Vineyard vacation despite launching airstrikes in Iraq and fresh battles in Gaza.  President Barack Obama will embark on a previously planned two-week vacation to Martha's Vineyard tomorrow regardless of the violence in Iraq and Gaza.  Even as the first military airstrikes he authorized in northern Iraq were carried out Friday [8/8/2014], Obama did not cancel the trip.  The White House said Thursday Obama would come back to Washington midway through the getaway to attend meetings but he will rejoin his family at the vacation spot later that week.

The Show Must Go On: Obama To Continue With This Week's Fundraising Trip Amid Crises.  You would think that with the ongoing violence in the Middle East, the recent international air disaster over Ukraine, and the massive influx of illegal immigrants on our Southern border, the White House would cancel the president's upcoming trip to the West Coast for Democratic party fundraisers.

Fundraising on the Titanic.  President Obama is set to make a West Coast swing this week, stopping in San Francisco and Los Angeles for fundraisers and photo-ops.  As Michael Shear noted over the weekend, Obama's decision to fundraise as the world burns isn't great for optics.

Amid Border Crisis, DHS Secretary To Participate in 'Let's Read! Let's Move!' Event.  Thousands of illegal immigrants are streaming across America's southern border, but on Wednesday [7/30/2014] the chief of the Department of Homeland Security will be attending an educational event with schoolchildren in Washington, D.C.

50 Things Barack Obama Has Done Wrong:  [#31]  George W. Bush quit playing golf in 2003 because he didn't want the mother of some fallen soldier to see the Commander-in-Chief out playing golf.  He also said he thought playing golf during a war sent the wrong signal to the American people.  Through June of 2014, Obama was up to 177 rounds and is on pace to play twice as much in his second term as his first term.

Obama Prepares Pardons for Terrorists.  Bill Ayers' recent appearance on Megyn Kelly's Fox News program appears to be part of a systematic campaign to whitewash the activities of the communist terrorists who were murdering policemen and FBI agents during the 1960s and 70s, and to set the stage for their release and rehabilitation.  Kelly was unprepared for the interview and failed to consult prominent experts on the case, such as former FBI agent Max Noel.  "I'm extremely disappointed, as are a number of us who actually worked the WUO [Weather Underground Organization] case on a daily basis, in your attempt to 'confront him' without availing yourself of the knowledge that those of us who actually worked the case could have given you," Noel said in a message to Kelly.

Obama pushing research on cars that talk to cars.  President Barack Obama said Tuesday [7/15/2014] he supports temporary measures to keep federal transportation aid flowing to the states and to keep construction crews on the job, while he also pressed Congress for a more permanent solution to the longstanding shortfall in funding for road and bridge-building projects.

The Editor says...
Barack H. Obama never seems to consider (or care about) the cost of government mandates and research programs.

Democrats continue to pile on Obama for skipping the border.  Yet more Democrats are piling on President Barack Obama for skipping a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border during his recent trip to Texas.  "I wish he would have come to the border,' said U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, a Texas Democrat on CNN's State of the Union with Candy Crowley.  "It would have sent an important message to the rest of the country about how seriously he takes this issue beyond the spending request he sent to Congress last week."

Ten Days That Shook the United States.  [President] Obama had resisted the meeting with [Governor] Perry, as he resisted visiting the border along the Rio Grande.  In Dallas and Austin for big-buck fundraisers with his conspicuously wealthy friends, Obama was ultimately shamed into the meeting.  Given Obama's stubbornness and vanity, the meeting signified the White House's perception of the weight of the moment.

What Would Cause President Obama to Cancel a Fundraiser?  What "tragedy" would be horrific enough for President Obama to cancel his usual schedule of speeches, lunches and fundraisers?  A commercial airliner shot down over Ukraine with Americans aboard?  No.  How about a terrorist attack on the American consulate in Benghazi on the anniversary of 9/11, killing our ambassador and three others?  No.  Perhaps news that Israel has begun a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip?  No way.  Obviously our president believes that any change to his schedule is a sign of weakness.

How a campaign move on immigration is haunting Obama now.  The border crisis is forcing President Obama to pay the price for a re-election move he made two years ago.  At the time, Obama was hoping to energize Latino voters who were disappointed that he had raised deportations to record levels in an attempt to build credibility with Republican lawmakers for an eventual deal on immigration reform.  So in June 2012, Obama announced a half-measure he would take on his own.  Through an executive order, Obama allowed hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who came before the age of 16 to remain in the U.S.

The BBQ joint where NO ONE cuts the line... except Obama.  The president was seen cutting the line at Austin's Franklin Barbecue Thursday afternoon, while in town to raise money for the Democratic Party.  Lives at the eatery are infamously long, and have been known to stretch as long as three hours wait.  But Mr Obama did no waiting today, as he showed up at the restaurant, shook a few hands and made his way straight to the register to order more than $300 worth of meat.

The Deadly Obama Virus.  With the H1N1 scare and the look-at-me vaccine photo op far behind him, waiting in line wasn't something Obama wanted to do when he stopped for lunch at Franklin Barbeque in Texas.  President Obama was so eager to get "nine pounds of brisket, four pounds of turkey, ribs and a pecan pie for a total of $422" — he cut the line.

CBS's Garrett Criticizes WH Optics of Obama Going to Fundraisers, Not Border.  Wednesday [7/2/2014] at the White House daily briefing, CBS White House correspondent Major Garrett slammed White House press secretary Josh Earnest over the "optics" of President Barack Obama refusing to go to the U.S.-Mexico border in light of the humanitarian crisis of thousands of unaccompanied minors flooding across the border.

WH: Obama Won't Visit Border While Attending Three TX Fundraisers Next Week.  White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said at Thursday's White House press briefing that Obama is scheduled to attend a fundraiser for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Dallas on Wednesday and two events for the Democratic National Committee in Austin on Wednesday and Thursday.  When pressed about Obama's decision not to go to the border and the military bases and detention centers where illegal immigrant children are being warehoused, Earnest said Obama has all the information that he needs from his senior advisors.

Obama Heads to Texas.  Barack Obama will be in Texas this week to pick up some more payola from his fat cat Democrat friends.  He'll attend fundraisers in Dallas and Austin followed by a speech on the economy at the Paramount Theater so he can stick the taxpayers for the travel bill.  But according to his top men, he won't be hugging any lice-ridden children staying at makeshift shelters on the border.

Gen. Michael Hayden: Obama's 'Going to Make Afghanistan Look Like Iraq'.  President Obama's plan to bring all but a few U.S. troops home from Afghanistan by the end of 2016 is "fairly dangerous," said retired Air Force General Michael Hayden, who served under President George W. Bush in various capacities.  "[L]et me parse out what the president just said:  'Before I leave office, I'm going to make Afghanistan look like Iraq.'  You know, going to zero (troops) in Iraq did not lead to a happy outcome.  And now he's committed to doing the same thing in Afghanistan.  I think it's fairly dangerous," Hayden told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Wednesday [5/28/2014].

WH to honor young illegal immigrants.  The White House will honor 10 young adults on Tuesday who came to the United States illegally and qualified for the president's program to defer deportation actions.  Each person has qualified for the government's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program, which delays removal proceedings against them as long as they meet certain guidelines.

Obama: White House Pies So Good, You'd Think There Was Crack in Them.  President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama had a bit of a weird moment at the White House tonight [6/30/2014] during an LGBT reception when the president praised the exquisite work of the White House Executive Pastry Chef and joked if he puts crack in them.  A crack joke at the White House.  Bet you never saw that coming.

Michelle Obama and crack pies.  At a White House reception for LGBT Pride Month, President Obama was praising outgoing executive pastry chef Bill Yosses for his ever so sweet baking skills.  Then the president suggested that perhaps Yosses' pies were so addicting because of a secret ingredient.

Jailbreak: Obama Releases 36,007 Criminal Aliens Into U.S..  Here's everything you need to know about immigration reform:  last year the Obama administration released 36,000 criminal aliens into the United States population.  The jailbreak was deliberate and included 193 murderers.  The Center for Immigration Studies obtained the information and released a report documenting the number and nature of the crimes committed by the aliens.  If 36,000 criminal aliens walking around your community wasn't enough, Obama's Department of Homeland Security is aiming to make it even easier for aliens to be released from detention.  That's what the groups agitating for immigration reform are demanding.  That's what the groups are likely to get.  The 2013 jailbreak included rapists, kidnappers, arsonists, burglars, sex offenders, and car thieves.  That's merely for 2013.

Feds released hundreds of immigrant murderers, drunk drivers, sex-crimes convicts.  Immigration officials knowingly released dozens of murderers and thousands of drunken drivers back into the U.S. in 2013, according to Obama administration statistics that could undercut the president's argument that he is trying to focus on the most serious criminals in his immigration enforcement.  Among the 36,000 immigrants whom U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released from custody last year there were 116 with convictions for homicide, 43 for negligent manslaughter, 14 for voluntary manslaughter and one with a conviction classified by ICE as "homicide-willful kill-public official-gun."

The Editor says...
Fidel Castro did the same thing 20 years ago.

Adolescent president shows his stuff.  Barack Obama shimmied across the Shake Shack counter following lunch with Joe Biden on Friday [5/16/2014].  Whitehouse.gov posted an official picture of the impromptu show on its website. [...] Could we have a more immature and pandering first couple than these two?

Nasa Cuts Ties With Russia Over Ukraine.  Nasa employees cannot travel to Russia, host visitors, or email Russian counterparts, according to a memo sent out to workers.  Activities relating to the International Space Station are exempt.  In a statement Nasa said it will continue to work with Russia's space agency "to maintain safe and continuous operation" of the station.

The Editor says...
It's hard to imagine that the Russians will continue to provide transportation for American astronauts if the U.S. is burning its bridges.  In other words, this is a bad time to be an American in space.

President Obama chipped in money for his aunt's burial costs but skipped funeral to go golfing.  After [Zeituni] Onyango, 61, died at a Boston, Massachusetts nursing home after battling breast cancer and respiratory issues earlier this month, President Barack Obama returned the favor by helping to pay for her funeral expenses.  But the President did not attend the funeral. [...] The Weekly Standard first drew attention to the fact Obama was golfing at the time of his aunt's funeral.  On that day, Obama was at his regular golf course at Joint Base Andrews with frequent golfing buddies Marvin and Walter Nicholson and Joe Paulson.

Trans-Pacific Partnership a Bad Deal for America.  The good news is that the Obama administration plans to create a lot of new jobs.  The bad news is that those jobs will mostly be in Asia.  President Obama's recent trip to Asia revived debate about the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, the cornerstone of this administration's so-called pivot to Asia.

Terrorist abetting attorney released from prison thanks to Obama administration.  Lynne Stewart, who was convicted of smuggling messages from Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman ("the Blind Sheikh" who masterminded the bombing of the World Trade Center) to his terrorist followers in Egypt, has been released early from prison thanks to the Obama administration.  She was released on grounds of "compassion" because she is terminally ill.

The Editor says...
This sounds like the case of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber who was released from prison because he was dying, but then took three years to do so.

What's Wrong With Obama?  Ariel Sharon — a man whose deeds as soldier, general, cabinet minister, and prime minister were decisive in the history of modern Israel, a soldier-statesman of true historical significance, a larger-than-life figure whose like we're unlikely to see again — dies, and Barack Obama issues a statement that would be appropriate if one were recognizing the death of a pedestrian functionary who had routinely served as the insignificant leader of a random country.

Anti-Intellectual Obama.  It was a distressing moment.  Not because Obama urged Americans to pursue vocational, rather than intellectual, degrees — that's fine, and potentially even good advice. [...] No, what's particularly distasteful about this episode is that Obama used art history, essentially, as a punchline.  The president of the United States implied that there is something inherently risible about devoting serious scholarship to mankind's highest cultural achievements.

Obama snubs Britain and cozies up to the French.  President Barack Obama tossed aside a long-standing 'special relationship' between the U.S. and Great Britain on Tuesday [2/11/2014], telling reporters that choosing a 'best ally' between France and the UK would be like choosing his favorite daughter.

Christiane Amanpour Gushes as Obama Shakes Hands with Castro.  President Barack Obama declined even to attend the funeral of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.  Instead of attending, he dispatched a pair of former secretaries of state to attend.  Obama attended the funeral of Nelson Mandela in South Africa and addressed the service.  He also mixed and mingled, and CNN had its cameras trained on his every move, capturing this revealing moment.  [Photo]  "Castro!  He's shaking hands with Raul Castro!" Amanpour shouts as Obama seeks Castro out, bows to the Cuban dictator and takes his hand.

Pajama Boy: The Obama Machine's Id.  The Obama administration isn't doing very well with putting an empathetic face on its calamitous health-insurance law, is it?  First, we had Julia, the creepy, eyeless, vision-of-horror from Brave New World whose life was run from cradle to grave by the federal government.  Then, we had Adriana, the painfully neutral and carefully ambi-racial stock-model-from-everywhere whose face became so synonymous with HealthCare.gov's hilarious launch that she had to be replaced with a graphic plugging an 800 number.  And now, courtesy of Organizing for Action, we have Pajama Boy, a metrosexual hipster in a plaid onesie who wants you to spend your precious Christmas days talking to him about the president's vision for health insurance.

ObamaCare Chaos Continues.  We begin with the unintended comedy known as Pajama Boy.  The Obama administration's former campaign apparatus, Organizing for America (OFA), apparently believes the way to get the so-called "young invincibles," necessary to subsidize older and sicker Americans to sign up for healthcare, is to appeal to their inner metrosexual. [...] When the only commandment for implementing the progressive agenda is "by any means necessary," there are no such things as stereotypes, cliches, unseemly titillation — or the rule of law.

12 questions the White House press corps could have asked Obama about Obamacare.  [#12]  You are about to embark on a two-week Hawaiian vacation.  While no one begrudges the president Christmas with his family, are you aware that two state-level Obamacare exchange directors have resigned over taking ill-timed tropical vacations within the last two weeks?  Are you sending the wrong message by leaving for so long while your legacy law is in pretty great peril, while Americans are still reeling from cancellations and the prospect of being uninsured?

How Obama referred to Tea Party protesters as 'tea-baggers' in handwritten letter to Texas teacher.  Responding to an angry constituent's letter about the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama allegedly used a sexually charged derogatory term referring to members of the Tea Party movement.  Thomas Ritter, a fifth-grade school teacher from Irving, Texas, has sent the president a note criticizing Obamacare — the controversial law offering health care to the uninsured, which has become the butt of jokes following a disastrous launch last month.  'This bill has caused such a divisive, derisive and toxic environment...  The reality is that any citizen that disagrees with your administration is targeted and ridiculed,' the Texas man wrote to the commander-in-chief.

Obama Refers to Tea Party Members as 'Tea-baggers'.  President Barack Obama used the sexually vulgar expression "tea-baggers" to refer to tea party members in a letter he wrote to a Texas grade school teacher.  The term "tea-baggers" has been used to ridicule the tea party, a group of American activists who advocate reducing taxes, shrinking the size of government, and returning to traditional family values.  Obama was replying to a letter he received from Thomas Ritter, a 5th grade school teacher from Irving, Texas.

Obama's Stubbornness.  "There are some things I really believe in," President Obama said last week.  He was putting it mildly.  Actually there are some things he really, really, really believes in — whether they work or not.  Either way, he's sticking with them.  And Obama is one stubborn dude.  This wouldn't be a problem if only a few of his lesser policies were at stake.  But it's his economic, domestic, and foreign policies that he's glued to, no matter what.

Did Obama know date of Mandela's death was June 26, 2013?  According to the read-by-millions Las Vegas Guardian Express, Mandela died on June 26th, 2013, but was kept on life support until December 2013.  On December 5, 2013, the White House tweeted a picture showing Obama behind the bars of the Robben Island prison, where Mandela had been incarcerated for 27 years.  The picture tweeted on Dec. 5, 2013 had been taken on June 29, 2013, when Barack and Michelle Obama visited the world famous site.  As president and first lady of the USA, the Obamas make pretty good vultures.

Obama makes room for fundraisers, golf in his schedule despite Obamacare troubles.  Since the launch of the HealthCare.gov on October 1, Obama has gone golfing five times and attended ten fundraisers — with five more scheduled for the beginning of this week — while Obamacare's favorability has hit all time lows.  And while President Obama's schedule has been open for golf and fundraisers, he was unable to attend the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address Tuesday due to — as White House advisor Dan Pfeiffer put it — "this whole website thing that someone suggested might destroy the Dem Party."

For Obama, Everything Is About Politics.  Two minutes after the start of an event he was scheduled to headline, President Barack Obama stepped into his limo for the 13-minute ride to the Four Seasons Hotel here. [...] That same day was the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, which the president chose not to honor by attending a ceremony marking it.

Obama Chose Dishonor.  President Obama had to choose between dishonor and war and he chose dishonor.  Now we will have war.  He has dishonored U.S. allies in the Middle East, including Israel and the Persian Gulf states, by abandoning their security concerns regarding a nuclear Iran by believing that appeasing Iran is the only way to avoid war.

How not to market insurance.  It's an old marketing maxim — sex sells.  And since nothing else is helping Obamacare sell (fewer than 27,000 people have successfully signed up for health insurance through the dangerously insecure federal Obamacare website), supporters in Colorado have decided to give this notion a try.

Abject Surrender by the United States.  This interim agreement is badly skewed from America's perspective.  Iran retains its full capacity to enrich uranium, thus abandoning a decade of Western insistence and Security Council resolutions that Iran stop all uranium-enrichment activities.

Lying Pays Off for Iran.  This agreement rewards Iran for a decade of lying to the IAEA and hiding its nuclear program, because it essentially accepts Iran's enrichment program.  The years of Iranian deceit of the IAEA and defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions have paid off.  Line two of the agreement, "Iran reaffirms that under no circumstances will Iran ever seek or develop any nuclear weapon," is after all false.

Iran Nuclear Deal Worst News Since Hitler Appeasement.  The nuclear deal with Tehran is right out of the Neville Chamberlain appeasement playbook.  A straight line can be drawn from President Obama's 2009 overture to Islamists and this historic misjudgment.

'This is nothing less than a profile in cowardice': Obama refuses to speak at 150th anniversary of Gettysburg.  President Barack Obama's affinity for Abraham Lincoln was on display through his political rise, but he won't be on hand to mark one of the 16th president's signature moments.  Obama has refused to attend the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address in Pennsylvania on November 19.  His decision, which has not been explained, has infuriated local media.

Chinese troops will have boots on the ground in Hawaii on Tuesday.  For the first time in history the U.S. Army will host the Communist Peoples Republic of China's Army on American soil Nov. 12-14, 2013.  But don't worry while Chinese soldiers will have boots on the ground in Hawaii, they are only really "simulating".  "Simulating humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to a fictional third country".

The Editor says...
Note that this disaster relief drill in Hawaii is taking place just after the strongest typhoon in recorded history has struck the Philippines.  This exercise was evidently planned weeks ago, but what military organization is unable to make last-minute changes in its plans?

Obamas Shut Down R Street for Valerie Jarrett's Birthday.  The Obamas shut down R Street at Florida Avenue NW in D.C. last night [11/15/2013] for a four-and-a-half-hour celebration of senior adviser Valerie Jarrett's birthday.

Army Chief Chafes at New Reliance on Technology.  America's appetite for war has shifted significantly in the last decade, prompting the Obama administration to lean heavily on the use of unmanned drone strikes and hawkish politicians of any stripe to stress that a proposed military action would not include "boots on the ground." [...] In an age of using technology to substitute for human warriors, one of the nation's highest-ranking officers cautions against relying too much on the 21st-century tools that have defined warfare over the last decade.

Did Jarrett And Michelle Pick Incompetent Website Firm?  Healthcare.gov's implosion may be due to one of its major developers being selected less for its technical competence than for cronyism. [...] Why pick a Canadian firm with a French name to help develop the official ObamaCare website?  It certainly wasn't based on the track record in developing health care software of CGI Federal, the IT contractor that orchestrated most of the Healthcare.gov website.

Department of Homeland Security is quietly considering lifting ban on Libyans coming to US.  The Department of Homeland Security is quietly considering lifting a long-standing ban on Libyans coming to the U.S. for training in the aviation and nuclear fields, according to an internal document, raising red flags for lawmakers who say Libya is still a security threat.  "Now, more than ever, we have concerns about terrorist activity in that country," Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told FoxNews.com.  "Now the administration wants to normalize — that's just not acceptable."

Park Service threatens to arrest WWII vets who try to visit their memorial.  So, you've heard the story today about the group of World War II veterans who had to break through barriers deliberately placed there by the Obama administration as part of its game-playing over the Democrat-forced government shutdown.  It's bad enough that they were deliberately inconveniencing 80-90 year old men who honorably served their country.  I thought that was pretty low.  And I was right, but I didn't think they could sink any lower.  Well, they did.

Also posted under ACORN.

Jay Z's American Fascism.  Who would have believed that a performing genre (it is a stretch to call it "music") dominated by convicted and confessed criminals, brutally misogynistic, preaching and practicing violence, would come to dominate American popular culture?  Jay Z, who brags of dealing drugs and shooting an older brother in his youth, and pleaded guilty to stabbing a record producer, could "help shape attitudes in a real (sic) positive way," according to President Obama.  Jay Z texts regularly with the president and is a regular White House visitor after opening Obama campaign rallies.

Red Flags? Company behind ObamaCare site has checkered past.  While the company behind the dysfunctional HealthCare.gov was virtually unknown to the American public until this month, critics say the Obama administration should have known this multibillion-dollar firm had a checkered history with other government contracts.  In projects stretching from Canada to Hawaii, parent company CGI Group and its subsidiaries ran into complaints about its performance.  And this was while, and in some cases before, CGI Federal was paid millions, along with other contractors, to create the ObamaCare website.

If only Obama were just a fake.  Dear Mr. President,  It didn't seem possible, but you shocked me.  After lowering my expectations for you, from very high five years ago to bottom-of-the-barrel now, I figured you could never again disappoint me.  But you did it.  And if your aim was to further diminish respect for the office you hold, mission accomplished.  The content of Monday's hyperpartisan speech was par for your hyperpartisan presidency, but the timing marked a new low.  Let me be clear:  Have you neither decency nor shame?

Can Barack Obama sink any lower? An out of touch president with no sense of decorum.  [New York Times columnist Maureen] Dowd reminds us that in the immediate aftermath of the brutal killing of 12 people just three miles from the White House and blocks from Capitol Hill, Barack Obama was in full campaign mode, bashing his political opponents, while families were grieving the loss of their loved ones.  Instead of speaking to the nation as the president of all Americans, he decided to proceed with a deeply partisan speech aimed at attacking conservatives over their opposition to his increasingly unpopular health care reforms.

Yes, people were dying in a gunfight across town, but Obama had a speech to give.  Barack Obama has never been accused of possessing the most refined sense of appropriate, especially when it comes to what normal people regard as tragedies. [...] When a 133-foot-tall wall of tsunami water rolled 10 miles inland to kill 16,000 in Japan two years ago, Obama expressed his sorrow, then went golfing.  When bad weather canceled his trip to the funeral of Poland's president, Obama paid his respects by golfing.  As the Gulf coast economy struggled back from the nation's worst environmental disaster ever, Obama urged all Americans to vacation there.  Then, he took his family to the New England coast.  So, it should not be surprising that as heavily-armed SWAT teams combed the Washington Navy Yard Monday for at least one deranged killer, Obama took the occasion to proceed with one of his harshest partisan speeches in months.

Samantha, Syria and the use of power.  Did you ever wonder why we have been teetering on the brink of war with Syria when virtually no one in America wants to go to war?  The answer can be summed up in two words:  Samantha Power.  Power is the new American ambassador to the United Nations and a longtime foreign-policy adviser to President Barack Obama.  She is also a dangerously radical proponent of military intervention in humanitarian crises around the globe.

Muslim Brotherhood supporter gets Homeland Security promotion.  A controversial Homeland Security advisor who was recently promoted to senior fellow is a self-declared Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and Mohamed Morsi supporter.  Mohamed Elibiary, who was appointed to the Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council by then-Secretary Janet Napolitano in 2010, tweeted Thursday [9/12/2013] that his appointment was renewed and his position elevated.

Yesterday, Obama Was Not My President — or Yours.  On Monday [9/16/2013], while the death toll mounted at the Navy Yard, President Barack Obama delivered a strident partisan tirade against Republicans, using the fifth anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse to score political points ahead of the debt ceiling debate. [...] Speaker of the House John Boehner said that Obama's speech was a "shame."  Charles Krauthammer said that it was in "extremely bad taste."  It was worse than that.  It was an insult to the victims and their families, a slap in the face to the nation as a whole, a dereliction of the simplest duty of empathy and discretion.

Obama Defends Economic Record, Rips GOP as DC Attack Unfolds.  Just minutes after the Washington DC police chief said that two shooters might still be on the loose in the Navy Yard mass murders, President Obama held a previously scheduled event to defend his economic record.

How much did it cost U.S. taxpayers to airlift Bo, the First Dog, to Martha's Vineyard?  This is the worst kind of arrogance and hubris ever displayed by a U.S. president when millions are struggling to put food on the table.

Isn't this how the Viet Nam war got started?
Officials: U.S. Considers Training Syria Rebels.  The Obama administration is considering a plan to use U.S. military trainers to help increase the capabilities of the Syrian rebels, in a move that would greatly expand the current CIA training being done quietly in Jordan, U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Thursday [9/5/2013].

Obama's Extra-Constitutional Abdication.  President Barack Obama's sudden decision — after a 45-minute Friday walk on the White House grounds — to go to Congress for authorization to intervene in Syria is far more than a simple, predictable act of accountability avoidance. [...] If he succeeds in getting the congressional authorization he claims he doesn't need, that maneuver will set the precedent-setting expectation that a president must seek congressional blessing for all military actions.

Persecution on Our Road to Damascus.  The President's confused and confusing speech this week raised more questions than it answered.  One of the most important questions isn't even being asked by our foreign policy elites:  Why should the U.S. back the Syrian rebels who are slaughtering Christians in that war-racked country?  Why should any American Christian support going to war for these rebels in Syria?  Until the Russians threw Mr. Obama a lifeline, we were preparing to align ourselves with persecutors of Christians in that country's civil war.

A Case Of Corrupt Justice In Florida.  It's come out in the George Zimmerman murder trial that the state of Florida withheld key exculpatory evidence in its arrest affidavit and charged Zimmerman under false pretenses.  Forty-four days after local police released neighborhood-watch captain Zimmerman from custody, ruling he fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in self defense, a special state task force set up under pressure from the Obama administration decided it was murder — with no grand jury input.

College Republicans Denied Admittance to Obama Speech.  President Obama was bound to receive a warm response from the audience attending his speech at the University of Central Missouri yesterday — because some students who disagreed with him weren't allowed into the building.  Christopher White of The College Fix reports that students wearing "Tea Party T-Shirts and others who wore patriotic or Republican-inspired clothing" were turned away at the door under the guise of security concerns, despite the fact that they held tickets to the event.

College Republicans refused entry to Obama's speech; labled 'security threat.  No doubt the security guards were just following guidelines issued by the Department of Homeland Security.  We all know that wearing a tea party T-shirt is indicative of terrorists so it just stands to reason that the Secret Service would keep tea party supporters away from the venue.

A Scandal Bigger Than Benghazi?  In a story that has remained largely under the mainstream media radar, Congress announced late last month that it would finally investigate the Aug. 6, 2011 helicopter crash in Afghanistan that resulted in 38 deaths, including 22 members of SEAL Team 6, made famous three months earlier when they killed Osama Bin Laden.  Grieving family members insist that soldiers in the elite unit were placed in unnecessary danger by the recklessness of the Obama administration, whose actions they characterized as criminal.

Obama's Perversity.  Presidents can never control everything.  The greatest example today is the flourishing of the U.S. energy sector.  We are now a net exporter of hydrocarbon fuels, the cleanest kind: natural gas.  This has happened because the market financed exploration in shale deposits, gambled that a workable technology would be found, and, because of the high price of fuel, made competitive investments in Montana and Canada that are paying off even now. [...] In the face of fantastic success stories in clean fuel discoveries today, Obama is still pretending to see artificial scarcities.  He still has to save the earth, which is in no particular danger.

Obama toasts failed African socialist.  President Barack Obama toasted the founding dictator of post-colonial Tanzania on Monday, who collectivized the nation's low-tech agricultural sector, established a one-party state and left that African nation's economy in ruins.

Millions of Egyptians standing up to Muslim Brotherhood Bossman Obama.  The Holy Bible instructs "As you sow so shall you reap", but Obama doesn't get it.  The Frankenstein radical Islamist Obama put into power in Egypt is falling apart at the seams; his handing a country over to the Muslim Brotherhood, proving to be an epic failure.

Obama's Reliable Weathervane.  President Obama can always be relied upon to come to wrong conclusion.

Is Climate Change Our No. 1 Crisis, Mr. President?  The economy stagnates.  Syria burns.  Scandals lap at his feet.  China and Russia mock him, even as a "29-year-old hacker" revealed his nation's spy secrets to the world.  How does President Obama respond?  With a grandiloquent speech on climate change.  Climate change?  It lies at the very bottom of a list of Americans' concerns (last of 21 — Pew poll).  Which means that Obama's declaration of unilateral American war on global warming, whatever the cost — and it will be heavy — is either highly visionary or hopelessly solipsistic.

U.S. Gives Saudi Airlines 'Unrestricted' Access to American Skies.  The United States and Saudi Arabia have signed an Open Skies agreement that will "permit unrestricted air service by the airlines of both countries between and beyond the other's territory."  The agreement means Saudi airlines may fly from any point in the kingdom to any point in the United States, and that U.S. airlines may fly from any point here to any airport in Saudi Arabia.

Obama's ill-advised visit to Tanzania.  When President Obama goes to Africa at month's end, the first African American president will have a rare opportunity to spread U.S. values to that continent.  It would be a shame if his trip instead validated slavery.  By selecting Tanzania as one of the three countries that will receive a presidential visit on that trip, the Obama administration is honoring a government that has been in a multiyear diplomatic dispute with the United States over human trafficking.

The Editor says...
How ironic, that the people who deny that Obama was born in Africa still refer to him as African-American.

Dissent Festers in States That Obama Forgot.  You might call North Dakota the antithesis of President Obama's political base. [...] It is one of six states he has not visited as president, along with South Dakota, Arkansas, Idaho, South Carolina and Utah.  He has gone just once to Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Tennessee and Wyoming.

Levin: Holder to blame for prematurely Mirandizing bomber, foiling FBI.  As you've probably read today [4/25/2013], terrorist #2 of the Boston marathon bombing was read his rights in the hospital by a magistrate in the presence of his defense attorney and the US Attorney, at which point he stopped talking.  The FBI was surprised by this because they hadn't finished questioning him.  Mark Levin asks the question, who sent the magistrate in there to read terrorist #2 his rights and cut off FBI questioning?

New DHS, DOJ Policy Helps Insane Illegals Escape Deportation, Detention.  A new policy issued by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Justice Department (DOJ) providing new "safeguards" and "enhanced protections" against deportation and detention for illegal immigrants with "serious mental disorders" is already having an impact.

Whose side is Obama on?  Team Obama decided precipitously to charge the surviving alleged bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, in civilian court.  This action resulted in his being read Miranda rights and obtaining a lawyer, prompting him to refuse to answer more questions from investigators.  Former federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy observed, "Obama was determined to end the public debate over whether the jihadist is a wartime enemy combatant or a mere criminal defendant."

Race-Obsessed Obama is Artificially Reinflating the Housing Bubble.
The Obama Subprime Bubble.  President Obama is worried about a plunge in new-home buying among minority borrowers with subprime credit scores.  So he's using the Federal Housing Administration, for starters, to help finance failure.  In a reckless gambit, FHA is asking lenders to relax lending standards, while assuring them it will back home loans down to a 580 FICO score with a minimal down payment and high debt-to-income ratio. [...] In effect, [the Department of] Justice is using private banks to carry out affirmative-action lending.

The 'Public Safety' Follies.  It has now been reported by Fox's Megyn Kelly that the FBI's interrogation of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was short-circuited when the Justice Department arranged for him to be given a presentment hearing in the hospital.  In point of fact, it was not the hearing that caused the suspension of vital intelligence-gathering.  It was the Obama Justice Department's decision over the weekend immediately to file a criminal charge against Tsarnaev.

President Obama to daughters: If you get a tattoo, I'm getting one too.  The President revealed that he and the First Lady are using reverse psychology to prevent daughters Sasha and Malia from getting tattoos.

The Editor says...
That's the wrong response.  The first thing to do is stop talking about it all the time, so that tattoos won't even be a consideration.  "I'm getting one, too" makes it sound as if a tattoo is not a shameful and permanent display of poor judgment and undeveloped discernment.  On the other hand, the adult Obamas may already have tattoos.  I'd rather not know.

First Lady Turns Easter Egg Roll Into White House 'Fat Camp'.  This year's White House Easter Egg Roll has been turned into a "fat camp" to inflict exercise and the First Lady's "Let's Move!" healthy meal plans on kids who want just want to celebrate the season on the South Lawn.  An e-mail from the "Let's Move!" campaign says the Easter Egg Roll has been turned into a "Let's Move! Social".

Barack Obama believes all Americans should make sacrifices — except himself .  The use of Air Force One costs around $180,000 an hour.  The First Family has already taken three vacations this year, including the president's February golfing getaway with Tiger Woods in Florida, and Michelle Obama's ski trip to Aspen, Colorado.  Vice President Joe Biden is also currently enjoying his third holiday of 2013, a five day stay at the luxurious Kiawah Island resort in South Carolina, famed for its golfing facilities, where a round alone can set you back $353.  Just a few months ago, the Obamas' Christmas/New Year trip to Hawaii cost US taxpayers an estimated $7 million.

More instances of Obama spending our money on himself.

"Obama Will Let Me Go".  Linda Vickers, who owns a ranch in Brooks County, which is Ground Zero for the immigration debate, pins the blame directly on talk of 'amnesty' and a 'path to citizenship' for people who entered the U.S. illegally.  She recalls one man being arrested on her ranch not long ago.  "The Border Patrol agent was loading one man up, and he told the officer in Spanish, 'Obama's gonna let me go'."  Border Patrol agents report that immigrants are crossing the border, and in some cases surrendering while asking, "Where do I go for my amnesty?"

The Perfect Amnesty Storm.  The recent release of illegal immigrants in detention, the Obama administration's renewed push for amnesty, and the planned furlough of thousands of border patrol agents will result in more illegal crossings, immigration experts and border officials say.  "It's the perfect storm," said Stuart Harris, the vice president of Local 1929 of the National Border Patrol Council in El Paso, Texas.  The planned furloughs of border patrol guards and the push for immigration reform has now given illegal immigrants the perfect opportunity to come across the border, he said.

What Intel Did the White House Miss By Whisking Abu Ghaith Into Federal Court?  To the White House, the capture earlier this month of Osama bin Laden's son-in-law is another feather in the cap of the administration's self-touted terrorism fighting chops.  To congressional Republicans, the capture of al-Qaeda propagandist Sulaiman Abu Gaith threatens to go down in history as a giant missed opportunity at best and deadly national security flub at worst — thanks to the "apparent rush" to bring him to trial in a New York federal court.

Sasha and Malia Obama 'Learn What They Live'.  If it's really true that "children learn what they live," then the First Daughters are learning how to be highbrow aristocrats whose extravagances are enjoyed without embarrassment, in full view and at the expense of the suffering.  That's right, "the suffering," because notwithstanding the onslaught of Obamaganda, most people in America today, thanks to Sasha and Malia's Dad, are suffering in one way or another.  Meanwhile, when it comes to showering themselves with the perks of the good life, the Obamas exercise zero restraint.

Mr. President: Instead of harming the troops, cut here instead.  The administration has clearly decided that hurting the American people is more important than making government run well.

Why Canceled White House Tours Are Sinking Obama on the Sequester.  It was a move that was supposed to bring the pain of billions in automatic budget cuts home to Americans.  Instead, Republicans are hammering President Obama where he lives.

Barack Obama: America's Marquis De Sade.  [Scroll down]  To recap, Obama created the problem, prevented the problem from being solved, turned down the chance to minimize the problem, released 2,000 repeat offender and/or violent illegal aliens before the problem became a problem, passed the problem into law instead of vetoing it, and is now making sure (behind the scenes) that the problem is every bit as painful as it possibly could be.

ICE Admits It Released More Than 2,000 Illegal Aliens, Including Serious Offenders.  After weeks of denials, the Obama administration acknowledged Thursday [3/14/2013] that it had, in fact, released more than 2,000 illegal immigrants from immigration jails due to budget concerns during three weeks in February.

Rep. Poe to DHS' Napolitano: Explain your Organized Jailbreak.  Appearing last night on Greta Van Susteren's show "On the Record," Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX2) had serious questions about the Obama administration's release of hundreds of illegal immigrant detainees.  The administration announced on Tuesday [2/26/2013] that it did not have the funding to keep the detainees incarcerated because of sequester cuts due to kick in on Friday.  Poe described this release as a "government organized jail break."

Putting politics over public safety.  An ominous pattern has been developing, particularly of late:  The Obama administration seems determined to subordinate public safety to political expediency.  If a course-correction is not effected promptly, the result is predictable.  Americans will be needlessly harmed, and perhaps killed.  The most recent and obvious example was the release last week of hundreds of reportedly dangerous illegal aliens from federal detention.

Government by Temper Tantrum.  The government wants something.  It wants to spend $3,803,000,000,000.  It's been told that it may only spend $3,759,000,000,000.  (Please notice that nine zeroes are left unmolested.)  And so now the government is going to throw a tantrum.  It will hide its aircraft carrier, stop food-safety inspections, close the White House to tourists who flew in from hundreds or thousands of miles away.

GOP lawmaker rips Napolitano for releasing detainees.  A senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary committee on Friday [3/8/2013] called into question the leadership abilities of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, expressing "outrage" at what he called the department's questionable response to sequestration — including the release of detainees from detention centers across the country.

Obama Defiles Reagan Stagecraft.  Despite the potential for a public relations disaster, Barack Obama even golfed during an oil disaster and vacationed with the "family at exactly the same time that Japan was suffering through a nuclear disaster, Libya had been bombed, and there was a threat of a government shutdown."  Also seared into America's mind's eye are images of Barack Obama body surfing in Hawaii as the nation teetered dangerously close to the edge of the fiscal cliff. Then, after very public, very heated negotiations concerning the ominous economic future of the country, Obama brazenly spent $7 million just flying back and forth to Hawaii for vacation.

F-16s To Egypt, But Not To Taiwan?  Unlike the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, which faces no existential threat, our Asian ally faces an increasingly belligerent and well-armed China.  Yet only one gets the latest weaponry and the question is why.

President Obama's Legacy: Government Greed.  It seems as if President Obama sends out another cabinet secretary every hour to tell the public about the dire consequences we will face if the sequestration cuts are not averted.  You've heard them — no vaccinations for children, teachers losing their jobs, less security from terrorist attacks, longer wait times at airports, and fewer food inspections.  Now there are even reports that government officials are releasing hundreds of immigrants from deportation centers.  What's next?  Is the president going to threaten to open the doors of federal prisons? [...] The president is asking the American people to believe that there is no waste or fat in government.  It's just a ridiculous notion.

Hagel, an Eccentric Choice to Run Defense.  First, by 'floating' the name of Susan Rice to succeed Hillary Clinton at the State Department, Obama left Rice publicly vulnerable to her critics, and allowed opposition to build.  Now, by similarly floating a name for the Pentagon, Obama has subjected Hagel to the same political hazards that undermined Rice — and with comparable results.

Egypt to Receive F-16s: State Department refuses to delay delivery to Muslim Brotherhood-run Egypt.  The State Department has refused to cancel or delay the delivery of several American-made F-16 fighter jets to Egypt, claiming that the arms deal serves America's "regional security interests," according to an official State Department document obtained by the [Washington] Free Beacon.

Obama Refuses To Delay Delivery Of F-16's To Muslim Brotherhood.  "Sixteen F-16s and 200 Abrams tanks are to be given to the Egyptian government before the end of the year under a foreign aid deal signed in 2010 with then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak," Fox News reported Tuesday [1/22/2013].  The State Department maintained in a January 8 letter to Sen. James Inhofe (R., Okla.) that the arming of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood serves the U.S.'s "regional security interests."

Obama Cracks Joke When Asked About Four Dead Americans In Benghazi.  When Steve Kroft of CBS News finally got around to asking President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton about the terrorist attacks in Benghazi resulting in the death of four brave Americans, President Obama decided it would be a good time to go for laughs.

New Yorkers Still in the Dark as Obama Hits the Links.  A good chunk of Long Island is still in the dark after 12 days now and nobody seems to care.  It's not like the president needs to show up for a photo op since these poor [people] overwhelmingly vote for him anyway.  He'll come visit eventually, so hold tight to your candles. [...] Imagine the howls if Bush played golf during the post-Katrina cleanup.

Obama, Biden Cozy Up to Anti-American Rapper Psy.  Had President-elect Mitt Romney posed for pictures with someone who once wished violent death upon the family members of U.S. soldiers the story would be swirling through the mainstream media for days.  Maybe longer.  Vice President Joe Biden did just that earlier today with rap star Psy, while President Barack Obama shared a laugh with the South Korean rapper known for his wildly popular "Gangnam Style" video.

Obama Meets, Shakes Hands and Shares Laugh with Rapper Psy.  Barack Obama met tonight [12/9/2012] with Psy, the anti-American South Korean rapper, at the Christmas in Washington Charity Concert.

Our anti-American president loves that anti-American Psy-chotic Korean rapper.  Barack Obama is an embarrassment to America.  He shook the hand of a man who openly calls for the murder of American soldiers and their families.

Barack Obama treats Britain with sneering contempt.  The Obama presidency has treated Britain on numerous occasions with extraordinary contempt, from the removal of the Churchill bust and the "boot on the throat" of BP, to the appeasement of Moscow over the NEW START Treaty, and the disgraceful decision to side with Argentina's calls for a negotiated settlement over the Falklands.

Obama makes rare use of autopen to sign highway funding bill.  President Obama signed a two-week extension of highway funding Friday [11/20/2015] using a so-called autopen, controversial technology that reproduces the president's signature.  The White House said Obama, who is in Malaysia, authorized his signature to be placed on the measure "given the need for this extension and given the fact that the president is on the other side of the Pacific Ocean."

Intervention in Syria Is a Very Bad Idea.  Syria is turning out to be a sort of Spanish Civil War of our age, with Hezbollah and Iran playing the role of fascist Italy and Germany, and the Islamic nations and jihadists that of Stalin's Russia, as the moderates disappear and the messy conflict becomes a proxy war for greater powers, with worse to come.

The Bunker-Barry Mentality of Today's White House.  The White House is under siege, and has been so since the 2013 sequestration.  America's top tourist draw continues to be held under siege by a malcontent community organizer who claimed the presidency in 2008, and his chip-on-the-shoulder wife.  Under sequestration even school children cannot get into their White House.  You can no longer get into the White House unless you're a Hollywood star, a favored world leader, a union boss or activist, unless allowed entry at the express invitation of a covetous Barack and Michelle Obama.

Obama snubs Paris, January 11, 2015.

After the attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, leaders of the 40 or 50 most powerful countries in the world gathered in Paris to march in the streets (with about a million French citizens) in a show of unity against Islamic violence.  Barack H. Obama was not interested.  He was either too preoccupied with the Sunday football games on TV, or he was just too lazy to get on Air Force One and fly over to Paris.

It's the Virgins, Stupid.  Eric Holder is planning conferences on the root causes of terrorism.  That was his excuse for sitting out the "I am Charlie" demonstrations, even though he was in Paris at the time.  That was a non sequitur, of course.  No reason why you can't do both.  But there was a bigger story here.  Why was the Attorney General representing us?  I can see why the President wasn't there.  He didn't want to run into Bibi Netanyahu.  Plus he has a major problem condemning terrorism.  But the Attorney General?

'Fruit Loop' Obama's Peculiar Priorities.  Then there was the terrorist attack in France that killed 17 people.  Following the bloodshed, a million-person march descended on Paris.  French President Francois Hollande and 44 foreign dignitaries, including leaders from Germany, Italy, Britain, Turkey, Israel, and the Palestinian territories, attended the protest.  One would think that not even another fundraiser in Gwyneth Paltrow's backyard could stop Barack 'Citizen of the World' Obama from participating in the show of unity.  But again, unfortunately, the president was mysteriously engaged elsewhere, possibly doing whatever he was doing on the night of the Benghazi attack.  No matter which way you slice it, Barack Obama is a very busy man with an ever-growing list of concerns to attend to.

Obama Signed Charlie's Death Warrant in 2012.  In essence, President Obama publicly accused Charlie Hebdo's publishers of bad judgment, and, hence, instead of condemning those who might act on their umbrage, gave a green-light for last weeks' Islamic terrorists to go on a rampage and murder anybody and everybody they could.  It wasn't a casual West Wing blunder that kept Obama from flying to the anti-terror demonstration in Paris.  Obama simply didn't want to memorialize the Hebdo cartoonists who, he feels, had slandered the one whom Obama calls "The Prophet Muhammad" rather than just Muhammad.

Missing the answer to terror attacks: Guns.  Over four million people including 50 world leaders showed up in Paris to rally against the murders and for free speech yet the main gist of subsequent commentary was to criticize the absence of President Obama.  Given his abhorrence of the word jihad, I never expected him to participate in any event that was critical of Islam.

Obama's Top Aide Takes Blame for U.S. Absence in Paris March.  President Barack Obama's chief of staff on Tuesday [1/20/2015] took responsibility for not sending a top U.S. official to a Paris unity march after deadly Islamic militant attacks in the French capital earlier this month.  Denis McDonough said in a television interview that it was his decision not to send the president or a high-level American representative to the Jan. 11 march, where the U.S. absence drew criticism.

The Editor says...
It sure took a long time to elect a scapegoat.  If Mr. McDonough was indeed the responsible party, why didn't he own up to his actions a week earlier?

Obama Doesn't Get Islamic Terrorism.  When 44 world leaders joined 1.6 million Parisians to condemn Islamist terror last Sunday, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were watching football.  Secretary of State John Kerry was in India (where it's been unseasonably cold), to give a speech on global warming.  Attorney General Eric Holder was in Paris but didn't attend because he was in "high-level meetings," aides said.  With whom?  Nearly every prominent French official was at the rally. [...] It's appalling if the White House didn't grasp the symbolic importance of U.S. participation, more appalling if the snub were deliberate.

The Editor says...
I think Mr. Obama understands Islam much better than most political commentators believe.

At Obama Press Conference, No Questions on Skipping Anti-Terror Rally.  Barack Obama on Friday [1/16/2015] conducted an almost hour-long news conference with journalists, but faced no questions on his administration's much-maligned decision not to send a representative to last Sunday's massive anti-terror rally in France. [...] After a nearly 20 minute preamble, Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron finally got to reporters.  After offering up a tough question, Karl lobbed this softball:  "If I may, Mr. President, I really like would hear your reaction to the news that Mitt Romney is thinking about running for president again."

Also posted under media bias in Obama's favor.

Brigadier General James Taylor?  In our hour of need, the French gave us Lafayette. In theirs, we sent them the guy who drained all the sugar out of "How Sweet It Is" and substituted saccharin.

I Feel Sorry For James Taylor.  Secretary of State John Kerry's decision to bring out James Taylor to sing "You've Got a Friend" in Paris yesterday has been met with near universal derision including by our own Emily Zanotti.  I finally had a chance to watch the video.  It was far from Taylor's best rendition of the song and he knew it.  By the end of it, he couldn't wait to get [...] out of there.  But Kerry pulled him back to acknowledge the applause/humiliation.  I feel sorry for James Taylor.  I like his music and once saw him in concert.  But neither he nor this song was right for this occasion.

Tone-deaf in Paris.  Four days after world leaders gathered in a powerful demonstration of righteous defiance in the wake of the terrorist killings in Paris, U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry finally touched down on French soil, reassuring Parisians that he had come to give them "a hug" and flying in reliable old James Taylor to perform "You've Got A Friend."  Now, we love James Taylor as much as the next New Englander, but — really?

Missing Paris was par for the course.  White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest provided the mea culpa for the Paris radical Islamist-terrorism rally that the president's administration decided not to attend.  Was the president's missed opportunity an oversight, or was it, in the parlance of our Golfer-in-Chief, par for the course?  In 2009, the moderate Muslim Iranian street came out in force to protest against the radical Islamists who lead their government.  President Obama chose the side of the hardliners and left the moderate, pro-reform Iranians literally hanging.  The president arguably continues to placate the radical Iranian leaders as he bides time for their full development of nuclear weapons.

Obama: Charlie who?  [Scroll down]  Had not 4 million marchers and 44 foreign leaders just turned out on the streets of France to declare "No" to intimidation, and pledging solidarity, indeed identification ("Je suis Charlie") with a satirical weekly specializing in the most outrageous and often tasteless portrayals of Muhammad?  And yet, within 48 hours, the new Charlie Hebdo issue featuring the image of Muhammad — albeit a sorrowful, indeed sympathetic Muhammad — sparked new protests, denunciations and threats of violence, which in turn evinced another round of doubt and self-flagellation in the West about the propriety and limits of free expression.  Hopeless.  As for President Obama, he never was Charlie, not even for those 48 hours.  From the day of the massacre, he has been practically invisible.

Pelosi: Obama's Paris No-Show OK Because 'What Happened Had a Spontaneity to It'.  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) excused President Obama's absence from a Paris march on Sunday because last Wednesday's terrorist attack there was a "spontaneous" event.  At a news conference with her caucus' new policy and communications committee today, Pelosi elaborated a bit on Obama's meeting with "a chunk of" House and Senate Democratic and Republican leadership. [...] Pelosi said there was no discussion about Obama's no-show among nearly 50 world leaders who linked arms in Paris in a show of solidarity against terrorism.  "That didn't come up at the meeting," she said.

Valerie Jarrett on WH Response to Paris Attacks: 'We Certainly Got the Substance Right'.  Valerie Jarrett thinks the substance of the administration's response to the Paris terror attacks was just super.  President Obama's close confidant and senior adviser appeared on CNN Thursday morning [1/15/2015] and reiterated the talking points on the lack of United State appearance at the unity march in Paris.  "I think we certainly got the substance right but it would have been great to participate in the parade and we're delighted Secretary Kerry is there now," said Jarrett.

Obama lies when the truth will do: Charlie Hebdo edition.  While millions of French marched with dozens of world leaders including Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu this Sunday in Paris and around France, the United States sent only our Ambassador to France and no one else.  Eric Holder was in town, but apparently was too busy or not interested in attending (the Department of Justice had no comment).  Today the outrage was palpable.  Many felt that the US should have had a significant presence there (aren't we leading the war on terror, or something?) and failed to show unity with the world when we had the option.

Obama AWOL in Paris: Message to America, allies is we don't care.  Sunday [1/11/2015], President Obama morally abdicated his place as the leader of the free world.  His decision to stay home instead of standing side by side with French President Hollande as millions marched in Paris in solidarity with the slain journalists of Charlie Hebdo in opposition to radical Islam — an enemy fiercer than we have seen in decades — sent a clear message to the world:  Obama just doesn't care.  His words about the horrendous terrorist attack this week were not enough.  They came off as inauthentic at best and offensive at worst.

In Denial About the Attack in France.  Most journalists tried to downplay or ignore Obama's failure to attend the huge Sunday "unity" rally in Paris, where 40 world leaders gathered in a show of support for France.  While the New York tabloids mocked Obama, most national newspapers mentioned "World leaders link arms" and barely noticed the leader of the free world had stayed home to watch football games.  Even after the White House spokesman admitted it was an error for top American officials to skip the event, obviously in reaction to national and international outrage, still some newspapers buried it inside their papers like it was no big deal.

Also posted under Pro-Obama media bias.

Tiptoeing around terror.  What was Mr. Obama thinking as he watched heads of state from Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere march with millions of others in the largest demonstration in France's history? He wasn't thinking. [...] The White House press corps wasn't content to accept his answer that the administration had simply made a little mistake, as they peppered him with questions, wanting to know why the president didn't go himself or at least send a high-level delegation in his place.  Mr. Obama's chief apologist wasn't especially helpful on that question.  He refused to say who was responsible for making that decision, but insisted it was "not a decision that was made by the president."  But why not?

I'm Glad Obama Skipped Paris.  Unlike many conservatives, I was not outraged when President Obama directed the Justice Department to end the pretense of "defending" the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).  I feel the same way about the president's decision not to join dozens of world leaders in Paris last Sunday to march in favor of free speech and against Islamic-supremacist terror.  I'm glad he stayed home.  I'm glad he didn't send Vice President Biden (whose main job is to attend such exhibitions), Secretary of State Kerry (whose main job escapes me), or Attorney General Holder (who was in Paris but still didn't go).  It's not too often that the "most transparent administration in history" is, what's the word? ... transparent.

Former Secret Service Agent Blasts Obama For Blaming Service For Skipping Paris March.  Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino blasted President Obama's decision to blame security concerns for his decision not to attend an anti-terrorism rally in Paris.  The White House blamed security concerns for Obama's decision not to attend the "March Of Unity" in Paris after a deadly Islamic terrorist attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris.  The Secret Service said that it was never asked to prepare for a presidential visit to Paris.

The Daze of the Jackals.  To hear the White House tell it, the basic reason Obama failed to go to the Paris was random chance.  Politico cites sources who explain that the march just sort of sneaked up on the presidency.  No one was aware of it until it was too late for the president to take the plane. [...] Maybe nobody told him that the Saudis wanted to destroy the US oil industry either.

Obama's Paris snub wasn't an oversight.  The White House reaction to the attacks in France, going back to the first reports of shots fired at Charlie Hebdo, has been noticeably subdued.  Obama had scheduled last week as a time to roll out some upcoming State of the Union proposals in trips to Michigan, Arizona and Tennessee.  When world events intruded, the president stubbornly stuck to his schedule, mentioning France only briefly before introducing his plan for free tuition at community colleges.  Then came the unity march.  No, it was not essential that Obama himself attend.  But there's no doubt he should have sent Vice President Joe Biden — why is there a VP, if not to go to big foreign events? — or at least Secretary of State John Kerry.

Better yet:  Jeremiah Wright.
Levin: Obama Should Have Sent Al Sharpton To Paris.  ["]First of all, he's a good marcher, he knows how to march.  You want to march?  You bring Al Sharpton.  That's number one.  Number two, I think he is the voice of the Obama administration.  He's certainly been to the White House more than any world leader, so that's who this administration should have sent if it was true to its belief system."

Flitting off to Paris on your own 747 can be such a chore!
Carter: Give Obama A Break for Not Going to Paris, He Just Came Back from Vacation.  Former president Jimmy Carter told a group of reporters that they should give Barack Obama a bit of a break for not attending the recent solidarity march in Paris, which dozens of other world leaders attended.  "I don't think there's any need for criticism," he said, according to the Wall Street Journal.  "The president sometimes can't go where he'd prefer to go," Carter continued.  "He's just come back from vacation so I think he's probably got a lot on his desk."  (Obama recently came back from his Hawaii Christmas vacation, where he was roundly criticized for ruining a wedding.)

The Editor says...
Mr. Obama obviously doesn't have anything "on his desk," because he spent the day watching television.

Secret Service: Obama Never Asked Us About Possible Unity Rally Trip.  According to a report in CNN, White House officials dismissed the possibility of President Obama attending the historic Unity March in Paris in response to the terror attacks at the offices of Charlie Hebdo last week due to security concerns. [...] Apparently the White House made that determination without ever consulting with the Secret Service.

Jonah Goldberg: White House Has Rule To "Never Overreact To Terrorism".  [Quoting Jonah Goldberg:] ["]Look, everyone agrees that this was a mistake.  The question is why this is a mistake.  Part of it is incompetence.  Never rule out incompetence as an explanation for anything in Washington.  But part of it also is that it fits into a pattern that this president and this White House has an ideological rule that has gone forth that says we're never going to overreact to terrorism.["]

White House was out of step as Paris march grew.  Somehow an event that the French didn't even announce until Friday had quickly gathered momentum, drawing about three dozen foreign leaders to Paris to express their outrage at the killings of French citizens at a satire magazine and a Jewish supermarket last week.  America's representative, Ambassador Jane Hartley, looked a little out of place.  White House aides were so caught off guard by the march's massive size and attention that they hadn't even asked President Barack Obama if he wanted to go.

The Editor says...
They have to ask?

Is Obama the apologizer-in-chief?  A list published by The Washington Post includes 13 Obama apologies, not including what his conservative adversaries consider an overall apologetic tone about America's position of dominance in the world.  The list also omits the tepid mea culpa the White House offered Monday [1/12/2015] for sending no one of importance to a massive anti-terror rally held Sunday in Paris.

Our National Disgrace.  This wasn't a misstep.  This was deliberate.  Biden could have gone.  Eric Holder was in Paris and was prohibited from going.  His job was to enforce sharia.  He refused to link jihad terror with jihad or Islam.  We are at war with "lone wolf" attacks.  This was a calculated move signalling his solidarity with jihad groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, "moderate" al Qaeda (his administration's turn of a phrase, not mine), Hamas, etc.

Is the White House a 'Sleeper Cell'?  [Scroll down]  It would certainly explain Obama's not going to France, which was a decision that hurt the USA, hurt the effort against Islamic terror and hurt the president's already tarnished reputation into the bargain.  There are so many other things that the existence of a White House "sleeper cell" would explain that I couldn't even begin to count them.  And as you know, a cell doesn't have to be violent to be active.

I'm ashamed by U.S. leaders' absence in Paris.  I find it hard to believe that collectively President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Attorney General Eric Holder — who was actually in France that day for a conference on counterterrorism — just had no time in their schedules on Sunday.  Holder had time to do the Sunday shows via satellite but not to show the world that he stood with the people of France?

Confirmed: Obama watched NFL playoffs instead of going to Paris.  You won't find it in the American media, but the U.K. Daily Mail has obtained confirmation from an administration spokesman that President Obama spent much of yesterday watching the NFL Playoffs.

Why Obama Watched Football Instead of Going to Paris.  President Barack Obama, we are told, watched the NFL playoffs on Sunday instead of going to the anti-terror rally in Paris.  Moreover, his apparent representative in Paris, controversial Attorney General Eric Holder, taped Sunday shows from the French capital but failed to attend the rally itself.

White House Admits Someone of 'Higher Profile' Should've Attended Paris Rally.  After facing criticism from a variety of sources over President Barack Obama's decision to skip a major rally in France this weekend to honor those killed in the terror attack on Charlie Hebdo[,] White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest admitted during Monday's briefing that the absence was probably a mistake.

Obama's Optics Problem on Display With Paris No-Show.  The president is facing withering criticism on both sides of the Atlantic for his decision — inexplicable to many and inadequately explained by the White House — to stay at home Sunday when so many other world leaders flew to Paris to demonstrate global solidarity with the French in the wake of last week's terrorist attack that left this key U.S. ally shaken.  More than 40 world leaders were there, from Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East.  They locked arms and marched resolutely down the Place de la Concorde.  Israel and the Palestinian Authority were there.  Russia sent a top official from Moscow.  But neither Obama, who was in Washington, nor Vice President Joe Biden, who was in Delaware, was there.

'Our President Should Have Been There'.  Many of our allies gathered together in Paris yesterday in an admirable display of determination.  Our President should have been there, because we must never hesitate to stand with our allies.  We should never hesitate to speak the truth.  In Paris or anywhere else in the world.

Obama and America shamefully skip Paris march against terror.  Displaying powerful symbolic unity, in fitting and proper testament to the defense of civilization, more than 40 world leaders linked arms to lead the mass march in Paris in resolve against Islamist terror.  The United States of America, Barack Obama, President, was inexcusably absent from one of the most critical turning points in the war between radical Islam and the West since 9/11.

No Longer the Leader of the Free World.  By choosing to stay away from the march, the United States expressed not only its public disdain for the effort to respond to the rising tide of hate, but the president also demonstrated that he doesn't understand that being the leader of the free world occasionally requires him to show up even when he'd rather stay home.  The symbolism of the boycott illustrated very clearly why Obama is the first American president since World War Two to publicly disdain that title.

White House Effort to Insulate Obama from Criticism Falls Apart.  White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest Monday insisted that President Obama could not have attended Sunday's march in Paris because security arrangements would have had an adverse impact on the event, but he admitted that the White House had not even consulted the Secret Service on the matter. [...] Nor did Earnest indicate how the White House came to the conclusion that Vice President Biden, whose security requirements are far less than the president's, couldn't attend.  Is Biden's security really much greater than that used by someone like Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu or German Chancellor Merkel, both of whom were at the march?

America betrays its values by not sending top U.S. officials to Paris unity rally.  At the least, the very least, Attorney General Eric Holder, who was already in Paris for an international conference on terrorism, could have taken some time out from doing interviews for Sunday morning talk shows to stand in one of the front rows Sunday, just because Holder has been a prominent face in Barack Obama's administration for a good, long time.

America snubs historic Paris rally.  President Barack Obama and other top members of his administration have snubbed a historic rally in Paris today that brought together more than 40 world leaders from Europe, Africa, the Middle East and even Russia. [...] According to an administration official, President Obama spent part of his Sunday afternoon watching a National Football League game on television.  Both games were broadcast hours after the march.

The Editor says...
Either Obama is completely incapable of making sound decisions, or he knows he can't be fired, no matter what he does, or he is a Muslim who doesn't want to be seen as criticizing other Muslims.  He stayed home to watch television while the competent leaders of the world went to Paris.  (You can rest assured that an NBC [or Fox] network feed to Air Force One would be a trivial challenge.  They are probably already in place.)  Maybe Mr. Obama was concerned about the availability of golf courses in France.  Whatever his excuse for failing to participate in a unified objection to Islamic terrorism, it is invalid.  It is plainly apparent that Barack H. Obama has sided with the Islamic terrorists.

Obama absent as world leaders gather in Paris to protest Islamic terror.  An impressive array of world leaders is gathered in Paris to march in solidarity with the victims of Islamic terror.  British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and even Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas found it important enough to stand up to those who would kill the critics of Mohammed to come to the City of Light.  But not President Obama.  Even though he has no activities at all on his presidential daily schedule, he is too busy to make time.

Kerry calls criticism over U.S. absence at Paris rally "quibbling".  The administration has received some negative attention due to the absence of its most prominent officials at a rally that was attended by more than 40 world leaders from countries that included Great Britain and Germany.  Among those critics was Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, who said on "CBS This Morning" Monday, "I thought it was a mistake not to send someone...  in hindsight I would hope that they would do it differently."

Obama AWOL in Paris: Message to America, allies is we don't care.  Sunday, President Obama morally abdicated his place as the leader of the free world.  His decision to stay home instead of standing side by side with French President Hollande as millions marched in Paris in solidarity with the slain journalists of Charlie Hebdo in opposition to radical Islam — an enemy fiercer than we have seen in decades — sent a clear message to the world:  Obama just doesn't care.

The Editor says...
Calling it apathy is too generous.  I think the "clear message" is that Obama doesn't want to protest Muslim violence because he's one of them.  At the very least he is a Muslim sympathizer, rooting for their team.  And why would a non-Muslim do that?

Barack Obama's French kiss-off.  Don't look for the president or vice president among the photos of 44 heads of state who locked arms and marched down Boulevard Voltaire in Paris.  Nor did they join a companion march the French Embassy organized in Washington on Sunday afternoon.  Indeed, Obama's public reactions to the attacks in Paris last week have been muted.

Somewhat related:
Where is Hillary on Paris attacks?  For someone supposedly running for president, Hillary Clinton is awfully scarce lately, completely silent on the jihad attacks on Charlie Hebdo and the kosher supermarket.  Wasn't she secretary of state?  Isn't foreign policy supposed to be one of her strengths?  Isn't she trying to put some daylight between herself and her former boss, President Obama?  She could have flown to Paris and marched, and it would have gotten her lots of attention as the president-in-waiting.  Yet she didn't.  Did Huma Abedin, who remains at her side, tell her that those who slander the prophet of Islam have no future?

Introduction by The Editor:
The imperious and arrogant Barack H. Obama apparently believes that the United States Marines are his pawns, to be used for any menial task that comes to his little mind.  In my estimation, Mr. Obama is far less of a man than the Marine who is holding the umbrella.  This is a breach of protocol, for which the President, not the Marine, is entirely responsible.

Obama breaches Marine umbrella protocol.  The commander in chief of the American armed forces today forced a violation of Marine Corps regulations, so he wouldn't get wet.  According to Marine Corps regulation MCO P1020.34F of the Marine Corps Uniform Regulations chapter 3, a male Marine is not allowed to carry an umbrella while in uniform.  There is no provision in the Marine Corps uniform regulation guidelines that allows a male Marine to carry an umbrella.

'The Incident in the Rose Garden Rain'.  Armed by the arrogant confidence that comes via a protective circle of self-serving, back-scratching politicians (including Republican ones), who do nothing to deter his increasing taunts against all things American, President Barack Hussein Obama continues to publicly trash the cherished image of the military.

Cloudy with a 100% chance of scandals: Obama ducks and weaves.  [Scroll down]  Unfortunately, Obama's advance staff was apparently too busy preparing his next campaign stops to check the Washington weather forecast.  It set up the news conference outdoors in the Rose Garden.  Wouldn't you know given POTUS' recent luck, it began raining.  Obama did the only thing he would think of:  No, he wasn't smart enough to come in out of the rain.  The commander-in-chief ordered two U.S. Marines to bring umbrellas and hold them over the leaders' heads while standing at attention.  So, as the two politicians droned on, including translation, the professionals in their dress uniforms got drenched.  As did the attending crowd.

They're Marines, Mr. President, not Butlers.  Well Obama may have kept his makeup from running, but the public relations hole he's digging for himself just got deeper.  Of course, someone else is sure to get the blame for the incomparable insolence demonstrated by this clueless commander-in-chief when he imperiously summoned two young, Marine NCO's to stand in the rain and hold umbrellas over his royal highness and Turkish Premier Erdogan.

Raindrops wash away reeling O's fake veneer.  Watching President Obama trying to dodge raindrops and responsibility yesterday reminded me of the moment when Dorothy pulls back the curtain and discovers that the Wizard of Oz is "just a man."  Stripped of his spell of mystery and power, the wizard is worse than mortal.  He's a fake.  So it was with Obama in the Rose Garden.

President Obama makes U.S. Marine break military rules by holding an umbrella while in uniform.  President Obama humiliated the marine who he asked to hold his umbrella by making him 'look like a butler', a respected military general claimed today.  Thomas McInerney, a former United States Air Force Lieutenant General, said that the President showed a 'lack of respect' by making the soldier shelter him from a shower. [...] According to Marine Corps regulations, not even the President of the United States can request a Marine to carry an umbrella without the express permission of the Commandant of the Marine Corps.

All wet: The president, the Marine, the umbrella and the media downpour.  Sometimes, little pictures can become big symbols.  Today's press conference in the rain — featuring Marines holding umbrellas over President Obama and the Turkish prime minister as they spoke in the Rose Garden — has become an instant classic.  And not in a way the White House would want.

From the Halls of Montezuma to Obama servant.  No one is arguing whether the commander-in-chief of the mighty United States military can order a highly-trained Marine Corps corporal to stand next to him holding an umbrella so the Chicagoan's balding head doesn't get moist.  But they are questioning whether Barack Obama should issue such a command to a member of the military who volunteered to protect the nation, not the Democrat's personal pate.

A Handy Dandy Warmist Survival Guide For Christmas Climate Change Discussions.  Do you know what Obama's plan is?  Jacking up the cost of living for Everyone Else while taking long fossil fueled flights to Hawaii.  This is the man with the highest carbon footprint in the world.

Andy's Emmy and Other Misguided Awards.  It was October 2009 when the Norwegian Nobel Committee decided to award its Peace Prize to newly coronated U.S. president, Barack Obama.  At the time, Obama's only accomplishment was showing up for the job sporting more melanin than any former commander in chief.  In fairness, during his first year, Barry did contribute some "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."  Those accomplishments include:
  •   shielding Islamic terrorists from interrogation,
  •   reprimanding cops,
  •   expanding Mexican abortion access,
  •   celebrating the Iranian New Year,
  •   butchering the U.S. healthcare system,
  •   and signing an $831-billion stimulus package that funded pressing taxpayer concerns like turtle tunnels.
After news got out that the peace prize recipient would rather eat shave ice than to fly to Oslo to pick up the award, the committee's ex-secretary, Geir Lundestad, confessed that he regretted his choice.

Why Obama got a Nobel Peace Prize for nothing — and Trump never will for anything.  President Barack Obama's first act as a Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2009 — nine months after he took the oath of office — was to try to wriggle out of accepting it.  "The morning the prize was announced, his staff investigated whether anyone had failed to travel to Oslo to receive their prize," writes Nobel insider Geir Lundestad in "The World's Most Prestigious Prize" (Oxford), out this month.  Apparently, the president was among the 61 percent of Americans who believed he didn't deserve it.

Who's More Shameful, Hillary or Her Media Protectors?  [Scroll down]  President Obama ran in 2008 promising he would make the world safer by fighting terrorism through diplomacy.  Not long after he implemented his appeasement policies, he began bragging (and the media amplified his boasts) that the world was already safer — presumably because of his flowery speeches on the glories of Islam.  What evidence did he have?  Well, it was the same kind of evidence upon which his bogus Nobel Peace Prize was granted:  He talked a good game.  Obama sweet-talked Islam; therefore, terrorists were standing down — even though they weren't.

What the Nobel Peace Prize President has Wrought.  The former director of the Nobel Institute regrets his decision to award Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.  Recall this was prior to Obama accomplishing anything other than pulling the wool over the eyes of the Nobel committee and the majority of Americans. [...] The Nobel Prize no doubt bloated Obama's already overinflated ego.  Perhaps it also empowered him to ignore the wishes and values of the American people as he projected his own disdainful attitude of American power across the globe.  The results are not pretty.  In fact, Nobel Peace Prize Obama is directly responsible for the deaths of Americans, Syrians, Iraqis, Iranians, Libyans, Yemenis, Egyptians, Nigerians, and Ukrainians, not to mention the displacement of millions from their former homes.

Obama's Nobel Prize fell short of hopes: committee insider.  The effect of giving the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to U.S. President Barack Obama fell short of the nominating committee's hopes, and several awards in the past 25 years were even more questionable, the committee's former secretary says in a new book.  Geir Lundestad, lifting a veil on the secretive five-member panel, also reveals that former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, late Czech president Vaclav Havel and several rock stars were among those who were considered for the award but never won.

Ex-Nobel Official: Barack Obama's Peace Prize Didn't Have Desired Effect.  The ex-secretary of the Nobel Committee says in a soon-to-be-released book that awarding the Peace Prize to Barack Obama in 2009 did not have the desired effect.  Geir Lundestad served as secretary to the committee for 25 years until he retired near the end of last year.  In a new book, which is set to be released Thursday [9/17/2015], Lundestad says awarding Obama the Peace Prize was intended to strengthen his hand but that it did not have the desired effect.  He writes, "Even many of Obama's supporters believed that the prize was a mistake.  In that sense the committee didn't achieve what it had hoped for."

The Editor says...
I thought the Peace Prize was supposed to be the result, not the cause, of some noteworthy action.

5 years later, a majority of Americans agrees Obama doesn't deserve that Nobel Prize.  Five years after a brand-new President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, a substantial majority of his fellow countrymen believe he still doesn't deserve it and never did.  The former state senator received the prestigious global prize in 2009 after having done little if anything to earn it.  Since then, however, Democrat Obama has ordered two troop surges into Afghanistan, initiated an air war to successfully oust Libya's Moammar Gaddafi, who was then executed by a mob.  That country has since fallen into a lawless chaos of feuding militias and terrorist training grounds.  Obama has been president for 46% of the Afghan war, America's longest, and presided over 73% of the fatalities.

Obama's Nobel Prize Plus Five.  President Obama had been in office for just 262 days when the Norwegian Nobel Committee singled out his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy" in awarding him the Nobel Prize. [...] At the time of the announcement in Oslo, President Obama himself said he was "surprised" at being chosen, as well he should have been.

Diplomat reveals White House fury over Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize.  When Norway awarded Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, just weeks into his presidency, it was seen not as a mark of his achievements, but as yet another symbol of the impossibly high expectations he had set for his tenure.  Now, a senior Norwegian diplomat has revealed that, far from feeling honoured by the award, the White House was furious.

Does Obama's Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Violate the Constitution?  By everyone's admission, President Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize for nothing already accomplished but only because he showed potential as the new President of the United States.  The awardee receives a framed diploma, a nifty medal and a document confirming the prize amount — now $1.4 million.  On top of that, the Prize is given by a five-member commission chosen by the parliament of Norway, the legislative body of a foreign state.

An overview of the entire Obama administration's incompetence:
Time For A Change?  Obama's Mistakes Say So.  [Scroll down slowly]  The Obama staff waited three hours to even tell him about the Christmas terrorist incident.  As one pundit pointed out, the staff woke him up immediately to tell him he won the Nobel Prize for Peace.  But a terror threat to the homeland was apparently much less important and urgent than that.

Revoke Obama's Peace Prize.  Obama, who less than nine months after his inauguration won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples" while fostering "a new climate" in international relations, especially in reaching out to the Islamic world, has the U.S. engaged in conflicts in six Muslim nations.  Today Mr. Obama has more troops in Afghanistan than when he took office.

Obama Should Return His Nobel Peace Prize.  President Obama claims undue credit for progress toward eliminating nuclear dangers.  In fact, in nearly eight years, his administrations have taken only a few small steps toward limiting these risks, while launching a nuclear weapons modernization program of unprecedented scope and expense.  The president's 2009 speech in Prague committing the United States to seeking the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons excited us all — and garnered him the Nobel Peace Prize.  Alas, the president neglected to figure out how this lofty goal was to be achieved.

Update:
How Obama spent his $1.4 million Nobel Peace Prize.  Today [3/11/2010], Obama's White House announced what charities will get his 2009 prize money.

"It is better to deserve honors and not have them
  than to have them and not deserve them."

— Mark Twain